Milpark and IISA Building South Africa's Underwriting Space

Academics & Programmes

13 Oct 2025

South Africa’s insurance sector is rapidly changing. From new engineering risks and climate-driven losses to digital distribution and stricter regulatory expectations, insurers need underwriters who combine technical judgement with commercial sense, data literacy and up-to-date product knowledge.

Yet a worrying pattern has emerged: a shrinking supply of trained underwriters and a loss of institutional expertise as senior practitioners retire. This attrition risk is not just an HR problem, it’s a risk to pricing accuracy, product innovation, and customer protection across the short-term insurance landscape.

Declining Underwriting Skills Impacts Industry Success

Underwriting sits at the heart of insurance, correctly assessing risk, setting terms and pricing, and deciding what to accept or decline. When underwriting skills are weak or uneven, insurers either underprice risk or over-restrict cover.

Multiple recent industry studies and practitioner commentaries - including INSETA’s Status of Skills in the Insurance Industry (2024) and FAnews’ New Age of Underwriting (2024) -point to the same drivers behind the shortage:

An ageing cohort of senior underwriters nearing retirement
Insufficient early-career entrants
Rapid product and risk complexity
A mismatch between industry needs and the current training supply.

Employers have also reported that technical knowledge alone is not enough; modern underwriters need data-sense, negotiation skills, claims-thinking, and an understanding of regulation and customer outcomes. The result is a premium on targeted practical training that can be deployed quickly in workplaces.

Short Courses Target High-Impact Skills Areas in the Workplace

Broad degree programs remain essential, but they can be slow to scale and often too general for time-pressed employers. Short, modular, workplace-aligned courses such as CPD, bridging programmes, and short courses offer a faster, more flexible route to build underwriting capability.

These courses can focus on high-impact areas such as underwriting for personal and commercial lines, engineering underwriting fundamentals, catastrophe exposure assessment, portfolio management, data-driven underwriting, and regulatory/FAIS compliance.

Importantly, they can be structured to align for broader qualifications for credit accumulation transfer. Milpark Education is making the most of the opportunity, with an established suite of short and accredited programmes in short-term insurance, including CPD short courses, Higher Certificate and Advanced Certificates, culminating in the Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Short-Term Insurance.

Milpark is well placed to deliver targeted vocational courses, which are tailored to employer needs, and can lead to professional certification.

Accredited Collaboration with the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA)

Recent developments include a further push in our collaboration with industry bodies, including the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA), to introduce short courses on underwriting for personal and commercial lines. Collaborating with these organisations ensures that courses are relevant, current, and recognised. Investing in underwriting capability is an investment in market stability.

Better underwriting improves pricing accuracy, reduces loss ratios over time, enables more appropriate coverage for complex risks, and supports healthier broker–insurer relationships. For consumers, particularly in underserved communities, better underwriting can mean fairer access to products that meet needs at sustainable prices. National skills initiatives and partnerships between education providers and industry bodies, therefore, carry systemic value beyond any single employer.

Milpark Education, IISA, and Employers Can Close the Skills Gap

South Africa’s underwriting skills gap is real and timely, but it is also resolvable if industry, education providers, and professional bodies work together. Milpark Education’s targeted short courses, combined with the IISA’s professional framework and employer engagement, create a practical, fast track to rebuild underwriting capability, preserve institutional knowledge, the quality of risk assessment, and ultimately, protect consumers and insurers alike.

Final Thoughts

Bringing all these industry pieces together can transform a skills shortage into a skills advantage. Underwriting excellence starts with education that moves at industry speed. Milpark Education’s School of Financial Services, in collaboration with IISA, is building the next generation of skilled underwriters - professionals who combine technical precision with commercial insight. Take the next step and Apply now for 2026.

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Asithandile Gqozo Lecturer