Educational Enhancements Ahead

by Leisha Cavallaro, ACAS, Candidate Representative to the Candidate Liaison Committee

Have you seen the CAS announcement about changes to the Course on Professionalism?

The CAS Professionalism Education Committee is excited to announce two upcoming changes to the Course on Professionalism:

New August Offering – To allow more opportunities for candidates to complete the required Course on Professionalism, we will introduce an August course in 2019. The 2019 course will be held in Chicago. With the addition of the February course offerings we introduced in 2017, the course is now offered four times a year in February, June, August, and December. The CAS will continue to offer multiple locations for the June and December courses. Registration for the August course will open in March.

Addition of Communications Skills to Course Curriculum – Communication skills are increasingly important for actuaries in providing technical expertise for their principal and clients. Recognizing that, the CAS Strategic Plan calls for our basic education system to “Deliver quality basic education that effectively integrates technical, business, and communication skills.” To help meet our strategic goals, the CAS is expanding the Course on Professionalism curriculum to include communication skills, beginning with the August 2019 course. Prior to the course, candidates will complete pre-work that will introduce skills of effective communication. Candidates will then apply these learnings during the course in a small group environment.

With the addition of communication skills to the curriculum, the course will expand to two full days to allow sufficient time to incorporate all of the topics.

What does this mean for you, outside of another chance to visit the Windy City? Even if you’ve already attended the Course on Professionalism, these changes are important to recognize and celebrate as we continuously align our professional education with practical experience and real-world applicability. As tech-to-nontech communication becomes increasingly prevalent in the actuarial and analytics fields, our ability to effectively communicate through multiple channels to various audiences is vital to our continued success. These communication skills are part of the CAS educational goals, and we even have an entire ASOP (41) dedicated to actuarial communications. But outside of that, there is little to teach and assess our ability to demonstrate these skills. Some might say written exams test this, but the goals are vastly different than in the usual business setting. In the former, you’re trying to answer questions as quickly as possible, while simultaneously trying to learn how you can slow down time. In the latter, you’re usually afforded time to draft, edit, and tailor your message to an audience, with the goal of persuading rather than simply informing. Exams are also only in written form and I’d argue that they demonstrate very little regarding our communication aptitude and influencing skills.

Without going too far down the rabbit hole, other educational programs provide some guidance and assessment of communication skills. For example, the SOA explicitly covers communication in their Decision Making and Communication Module and assesses a candidate’s skills through their Fellowship Admissions Course. In this course, SOA candidates get the opportunity to present in a simulated business setting and receive direct feedback on their oral communication skills. Additionally, the SOA recently added Exam PA (Predictive Analytics) that essentially gives candidates a realistic business problem accompanied by a data set, which they utilize to prepare a business report that supports their solution.

The CAS has recognized the gap in providing effective education surrounding communication and are making changes to best align with the CAS Strategic Plan. The CAS Board considered multiple options as to how to incorporate this into our educational requirements. I’m excited to hear that it is NOT an additional exam! Adding some pre-work and a half day to the Course on Professionalism makes perfect sense, as communication is a key component of professionalism. This change not only demonstrates the effort to continually adapt our educational offerings to give candidates the knowledge they need to succeed, but it also brings more practical experience and exposure in our journey to designation, and that is invaluable for on-the-job performance. Keep an eye out for more information about the changes forthcoming, expected in March or April.