In Summary

Do you enjoy facing challenges and creating new solutions? Sound like you? Great.

Job Description

Location: Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast.

At Aviva, we're best known for providing insurance. And there are lots of factors that affect how much it costs. This includes the type of cover being provided, the likelihood of something bad happening, the value of what’s being insured, and the customer’s history of making claims in the past. 

Our underwriters take all this, and more, into account. They assess whether it’s something we’d be comfortable to insure and, if so, how much we would charge our customer for it.  

Join us as an Underwriting Apprentice and you'll be learning from some of the most skilled underwriters in the insurance industry. What’s more, you’ll be able to earn a salary while working towards qualifications and enjoy a permanent role from day one. 


What does it involve? 

We don’t expect you to have had any previous underwriting experience – our structured programme will teach you everything you need to know. Right now, we are more interested in your passion, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn. 

Underwriting spans all areas of our insurance business.  As an Underwriting Apprentice here, you’ll be working alongside and learning from some of the most skilled underwriters in commercial insurance.  

We will teach you how to work with our customers and you’ll get to spend time building relationships with our brokers (and other parts of the business), helping secure new business while ensuring our existing customers get the best solutions, tailored to their wants and needs. 

Everything you do will have an impact on Aviva and our customers, so you’ll need to be passionate about delivering the best service and results. At the same time, we’ll sponsor your continued studies as you work towards becoming a qualified underwriter. 

You’ll spend 80% of your time working in the role and 20% working towards accredited qualifications. These studies will be with a national training provider and usually take three years to complete.  

In your first year you will usually follow our in-house training plan and complete a Certificate in Insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute.  

If you’re based in England, you might spend your second and third year working towards your Level 4 Insurance Professional Apprenticeship qualification. You’ll also gain a Diploma in Insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute. 

If you’re based in Scotland, you’ll likely work towards a SCQF Level 8 Insurance Technical in your second and third year as well as your Diploma in Insurance. 

Throughout, you’ll be working alongside a community of highly skilled and experienced professionals who will be on hand to support and encourage you every step of the way. This is a brilliant learning environment – a place where everyone is welcome to share ideas, ask questions, and seek out advice. 


What’s in it for you?

• A salary of £23,900 per year
  
• Paid study time and support towards professional qualifications
  
• A permanent job from the start
  
• A great support network to help you grow into your role
  
• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays
  
• Contributory pension scheme
  
• Discounts on all Aviva products
  
• Eligible for a performance-related bonus
  
• Flexible working and wellbeing support
  
• Paid volunteering time to get involved in projects and local communities  
  

What do we look for?  

To join us on this apprenticeship, you’ll need (or be on track to achieve) at least two A-Levels or three Scottish Highers. Or have an equivalent Level 3 qualification.  

You will also need at least five GCSEs or Scottish National 5s at grades A*-C (9-4) or have equivalent qualifications. These must include English and Maths. 

New insights, perspectives, and diversity of thought are invaluable to us. Which is why you don’t need any previous experience in underwriting to apply.  

Instead, we’re looking for:

• A confident communicator
  
• Someone who can adapt well to different tasks and situations
  
• The ability to work independently and as part of a team. 
  

Most importantly, you’ll need to be naturally curious, keen to take the lead when it comes to your own development, and excited by the prospect of building a long-term career with Aviva.   


Where will you be based? 

This apprenticeship role can be based in Birmingham, Glasgow, or Belfast. It’s likely you’ll balance time in the office with working from home. We call this smart working. Three days in the office and two days from home is a typical example, but that can vary. When you join us, your leader will discuss what works best for you, your team, and the business.  

Smart working means you’ll still need to live within commuting distance of the office you’ll be based in. That way, you will get to spend time with your team in person as well as virtually. It’ll also help you access the support and people that will help you succeed.
 

About Us

We’re a leading international insurance, savings, retirement, and investment business.  We're here to help our customers plan for the future and, when the worst happens, make things right. 

You might be thinking that we’re just another boring, corporate firm. But we don’t all wear suits and shiny shoes here. We’re proud to be different and just like our customers, our people are a diverse mix of cultures, genders, ages, perspectives, and ideas.  


What’s the application process?  

Please note: If we have a lot of responses, applications may close early. So, it’s best to apply as early as you can. 

Start by pressing 'apply' to be taken through to our online application. 

There, you'll be asked to complete a short questionnaire about your motivations, and submit it along with a copy of your CV.  

If you match our criteria (or get pretty close), we’ll ask you to complete a situation strength test and an online numerical reasoning test.  

Pass that and next will be a video interview.  

The final stage is a virtual assessment day, with tasks that enable you to show us what you're good at and what you enjoy.  

Impress us there and we'll offer you a role to start in September 2024.
 

Additional Information

We are inclusive – we want applications from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. 

Excited but not sure you tick every box? Research tells us that women, particularly, feel this way. So, regardless of gender, why not apply? And if you’re in a job share just apply as a pair. 

We flex locations, hours and working patterns to suit our customers, business, and you. Most of our people are smart working – spending around 60% of their time in our offices and 40% at home. 

We interview every disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria for the role. During your application, there will be an opportunity for you to send us an email stating that you have a disclosed disability. 

Please submit your application online if you can. But if that presents a problem, just email avivaearlycareers@aviva.com and we'll arrange an alternative method. 

To find out more about working at Aviva in general, take a look here.