UNA Alliance

UNA is very proud and pleased to announce the launch of its UNAversity – a stimulating residential programme designed to accelerate the performance of twenty-five high-potential account executives, handpicked from 1,000 employees across all 13 UNA members.

This first cohort of ‘students’ will experience commercially-focused learning, tailored to the demands of the insurance broking industry. By learning among peers from as far apart as Shetland, Swansea and Ipswich strong new networking opportunities will also be created.

One of their first exercises sees the UNAversity students immersed in a theoretical competitive marketing environment running competing companies: agreeing strategy, making key decisions and living with the consequences.

Other topics to be covered include: sales; communication and presentation skills; teamwork; competitive advantage; and commercial awareness, financial understanding and business acumen. As well as experts from within the industry delivering the training, inspirational speakers and business experts have been carefully chosen and selected.  These include:-

Deborah Hall has been a professional presenter for 30 years. Trained by the BBC as a journalist, she was a News Anchor on BBC World for many years. She now coaches at Durham University and London Business School. Deborah will facilitate role play scenarios to improve and hone communication skills.

Winner of the title ‘Britain’s Sales Trainer of the Year’ Andy Bounds is an expert at helping companies to sell more. The author of three bestselling books on sales he has helped his customers win over £20billion of new business.

Former Special Forces reserve soldier Jamie Hull’s plane engine suddenly caught fire during a routine solo flight. With his plane rapidly descending Jamie freed himself from the cockpit and clambered onto the wing, where he stayed until the aircraft was just 15 feet from the ground, before jumping to safety. His story will send students back to their day jobs equipped to manage risk and think clearly under pressure.

This maiden cohort will conclude their course with a second residential stay in February 2018. It is anticipated that UNAversity will continue year on year, with different business roles being able to access the overall programme.

UNA Executive Chairman, Tim Ryan comments:  “A key benefit for UNA Alliance members is that they can experience opportunities such as training on a grand scale while maintaining their independence and local spirit. 2018 will see a huge investment in learning and development and UNAversity is just the start. The concept has been a long time in the planning and it’s brilliant to see it now come to fruition.”

Rhys Thomas, Chief Executive at Thomas Carroll Group, and Chairman of the UNA People Development Group within UNA says: “UNAversity has been developed in consultation with and the support of a number of UNA Alliance partner insurers and I’m very grateful to them all. I hope our first UNAversity ‘students’ benefit hugely from this opportunity.”