The Profession regularly expresses its desire for the next generation of actuaries to be great communicators and leaders.
Has it ever considered that this is incompatible with our qualification structure?
When the expected time to qualification is between three and six years, many capable individuals don't give the actuarial profession a second look and of those that do, a high proportion of the better communicators and more creative individuals drop out along the way.
A colleague who is a former student put it to me recently that, "They design a system that requires you to have a limited social life for the five years it takes to qualify but expect confident alpha- male types to emerge at the other side." I would tend to agree.
John Fitzgerald, 15 April
The editor welcomes readers' letters but reserves the right to edit them for publication. Please email [email protected]. The deadline for receiving letters for the June issue is 19 May 2014.