1. I am curious where you get both of those ideas from, it's not what I'm hearing on the ground. For many contractors, even in S2, contract rates are less than in the past, many contractors happy to accept a pay cut to keep their job.
2. Are you aware that actuary has recently been listed as a shortage profession in the UK, with S2 being the main reason cited? This means employers can bring in people from outside the EU to the UK to work as actuaries, whereas previously there were restrictions. Now pause and consider supply/demand theory and what that means for your job security and future earnings in the UK when the supply will be increased with people from all over the world who are willing to work for much less to do the same job as you?
3. Don't actuaries pride themselves on good planning ahead and making good assumptions going forward, long term views etc? Then ask yourself why there would be a shortage at all in this profession? Who takes responsibility for this? S2 is not exactly something that's come up unexpectedly this year, it's been on the way for a long time.
4. Conflict of interest issues. S2 is a short term workload but won't recruiters and companies take full advantage and bring in as many non-EU actuaries as possible permanently at cheaper rates than training up their own UK actuaries, to do non-S2 work also? Expect loads of new CVs of people abroad to be posted to companies all over the UK by zealous recruiters very soon. Conflict of interest?
5. How can it be fair on the countries overseas outside the EU that the UK will be importing actuaries from those countries to work here on S2 when there may be more genuine actuary needs in those countries? As I thought the profession's rationale to offer cheaper training materials in those countries were because it wants to develop the profession abroad in poorer countries. Then frankly we shouldn't be taking their actuaries from them, to be consistent.
6. We keep hearing how good our education system is yet we can't come up with enough our own actuaries? But thousands of graduates each year have their applications for actuary trainee jobs rejected.
7. Is it fair to ask whether the profession has contributed to a shortage in part when it charges higher amounts to train actuaries in the UK compared to overseas? Why must UK companies spend e.g. for CA2 or CA3 a fee of £740 then travel and accomodation to the UK's most expensive cities for 2 days for their employees, when members overseas can do the test online for £300 from the comfort of their own home? How is this fair on the UK consumer? Does this really comply with the Equality Act 2010 Law?
8. Having been interviewed in the past many times for contract opportunities in S2, was often rejected for not having previous S2 experience. Having worked in S2 by now eventually, I must say that I find some employers being unreasonable about this requirement and a reluctance to take people on and give experience. It's not that hard. Probably it's an excuse anyway and they're trying to get the cheapest labour they can. And now that I've got S2 experience I get no calls about S2 contracts. Isn't that odd? As I've just seen the profession I'm in described as in shortage because of all this S2 work yet I get no calls about S2 contracts despite having experience etc !!! Plus how can non-EU people have experience in S2 as it does not apply there. So companies have rejected UK people for not having S2 experience but are all for recruting from outside EU for S2 resourcing. That seems odd.
9. If more actuaries are going to be brought into the UK from outside EU to work for S2, what happens when S2 workload falls away? Won't this lead to redundancies and unemployment? Doesn't it make more sense to meet a short term workload with short term contract work?
10. If you are as concerned as I am about all this and don't feel your interests are protected then I urge you to complain to the profession about these matters. No use crying in 10 years time when actuary pays less than something far less taxing after all that hard work to qualify, or if your job has been exported or done by people from abroad willing to work for much less than you. It's happened in other industries and lines of work, don't think it will never happen to you!
Last edited by a moderator: Nov 22, 2011