The employment scene is very good for actuaries at present. The trick is finding your way in. Excellent mathematical skills - and a high grade in maths in the Leaving Cert - are a must. Qualified actuaries are fellows of the Institute of Actuaries, a British body, or the Faculty of Actuaries, a Scottish body. There are a number of exams - now being revised - which you must pass to become a fellow.
There are three main routes into the profession. School-leavers can go directly into employment and, over a number of years, sit the exams of the Institute of Actuaries, in England, or the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland. You will usually need an A in higher-level maths as well as high grades in other subjects. Paul Duffy, chairman of the communications and public relations committee of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland, says employers are also looking for good communication skills.
Students can opt for the actuarial degrees at UCD or DCU, which offer substantial exemptions from the professional exams. Points are extremely high and likely to remain so.
The third route is a degree with a high mathematical content, for which you may may gain some exemptions, explains Duffy.
Michael Marsh, chairman of DCU's programme board for the financial and actuarial maths degree, says the college's degree is structured as a maths degree. Some students will become actuaries while others will decide it is not for them. So, it's important that they graduate with a strong maths degree, he says.
In the third year of the four-year degree programme students spend six months on industrial placement. This gives students a very good idea of what the job entails and many students find employment with the company with whom they did their placement, according to Marsh. In fact, employment prospects for trainee actuaries are "embarrassingly good' he says, there is a growing awareness among employers of the value of an actuarial qualification. The success of the BSc programme has spawned an MSc in financial maths and demand for this is also very high.
Philip Boland, professor of statistics at UCD and director of the actuarial and financial studies degree, says they are looking for people with good quantitative skills. The course includes a substantial amount of statistics and maths so a liking for maths is a must. It is a pretty demanding course, he stresses.
About two-thirds of graduates go into trainee actuarial positions, about 20 per cent go into banking and finance while the remainder tend to go into accounting and management consultancy, says Boland.
The course is changing from a three-year programme to four years and will include a formal five or six-month work placement in third year.
When choosing an entry route, second-level students who want to train as actuaries may be attracted by the idea of going directly into employment, gaining experience and being paid while they train. And this route works very well for many trainee actuaires.
On the other hand, these students miss out on the social and cultural aspects of university, says Boland. He also mentions the attrition rate among trainee actuaries which is about 50 per cent. If students have done a degree, they have something to fall back on. UCD's degree provides a good grounding in statistics, maths, economics, and finance, he points out. Each year, students call the college, saying that they are good at maths and want to do something in the business area, says Boland. If they want to do accountancy, they shouldn't do this degree, but if they want to go into insurance, finance or banking and use quantitative skills, actuarial studies may be the right degree, he advises.
