Queens University Belfast has announced the launch of a new society for actuaries in Northern Ireland and those with an interest in the profession.
The Society of Northern Ireland Actuaries (SONIA) hopes to attract actuarial professionals as well as actuarial science and risk management degree students at Queen's University Management School (QUMS).
Funded by Invest NI, SONIA aims to offer a forum for local actuaries to share opinions on actuarial topics, as well as a networking opportunity, professional development and engagement with industry for students.
SONIA's launch event is to take place on 7 February at QUMS and is supported by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
President Jane Curtis will speak on the Actuarial Profession's new education strategy and discuss the latest thinking on topics such as enhanced transfer values.
Speaking about the motivation for SONIA, Colin O'Hare, president of the Society and programme director for the actuarial science degree at Queen's, said: "The idea of establishing a society that includes professional actuaries and undergraduate students as its core membership has never been tried before in the United Kingdom.
"It not only offers employers the opportunity to engage with and learn from academics who are working at the cutting edge of actuarial research, but also provides an opportunity for students to develop the necessary business awareness skills that can sometimes be difficult to teach in the lecture theatre.
"Northern Ireland has a small but strong actuarial base, and with the establishment of the actuarial degree at Queen's four years ago, now has the capacity to grow rapidly in the future. A further motivation for the development of SONIA is to provide an actuarial visibility for Northern Ireland as it develops as a centre of excellence in actuarial science and risk management across the UK."
Anyone seeking further information on SONIA should contact Colin O'Hare at QUMS on +44 (0) 28 9097 4671 or email [email protected]