Legal & General taps into a rich vein of talent in Wales
Since coming to Wales in 1996, the UK Top 50 financial services company Legal & General has been able to find exactly the people it needed to succeed – and the result has been an exciting decade of rapid growth.
But the company has gone a step further, by collaborating with universities to help create future graduates with the right skills for its business – and also to train its existing staff to more senior levels.
Customised courses
Legal & General teamed up with Cardiff University to establish a unique Medical Underwriting Academy that could deliver exactly the skills required to move its Welsh-based operations to the top of the industry’s value chain.
Over the past five years nearly 100 Legal & General underwriters have been able to progress in the organisation thanks to the Academy’s highly business-focused courses.
Following the success of the Academy, the company worked closely with the university to help many existing staff develop more skills.
First a partnership with the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) helped Legal & General to develop a course which enabled compliance staff to secure Financial Planning Certificates.
Then the company collaborated with Cardiff University again to customise its MBA level courses for middle and senior managers, and since 2007 many executives from Legal & General have been taking advantage of these courses.
Comprehensive skills
The extensive skills at Legal & General’s Cardiff base now cover the full range of functions - from life assurance, pensions, investment and general insurance to HR, audit, compliance and business standards functions.
Many Cardiff-based management functions now serve the entire Legal and General group, which provides general insurance and protection products to over 5.75 million customers, and whose worldwide investments total more than £257 billion.
“In the early days we would have been reliant on other parts of L&G for support with many things but now we have the skills to manage every aspect of the business.” Adrian Clark, Cardiff site director, Legal & General
