Alvin Soh:
Mary
Thank you for reaching out. These are 2 important questions and let me share my views. You may share my response to Goactuary community.
- On UEC, I generally disagree with its implementation. I hold the view that students who are ready in the relevant area can prove themselves by passing the exams. If the argument is that the current exam format does not reflect the ability of the student on the mastery of the subject, then we can review the delivery of the exam, but not to provide an alternative to the exam. After all- it is just that many exams- pass them if a student is serious. We are not imposing any minimum year of experience as a barrier to SOA membership so smart talents can prove themselves pretty fast.
A relevant argument for UEC is probably on the observation that younger talents may not choose to embark on actuarial courses during their university time but on some other courses/ subjects. UEC could be a tactic to hook the students and create awareness early. However, I view that substance of the issue is the relevance and marketing of actuarial profession in the new world, instead of marketing of actuarial career to the university students. If employers in non financial industries take the SOA certification as the quality assurance to their hiring of say, quantitative analyst, the demand will still be feedback to the next generation university students and I believe the demand will stay.
- On the recent exam changes, I am proud of the changes and I fully support continual evolvement as such. I am sure that there will be a lot of debates on whether actuarial science should compete with, or complement, or is data analytics. And I am certain that we need to evolve and exercise foresight on what the needs of next generation are and how actuarial profession continue to add value. I also support the idea of micro credential as they can be used as a way for the SOA to establish presence beyond traditional industries.
Personally, I believe the following 2 areas will amplify our core actuarial skills in the new world:
Leadership skills. I applaud the focus on EQ and AQ in the recent changes, which is part of leadership skills.
Technological knowledge. This covers appropriate exposure to both the relevant coding skills (e.g., pythons) and to most recent development in technological world.
These 2 skills are necessary because we will be living in a more interdependent world- where the ability to contextualize and influence will be more important than before.
Regards
Alvin Soh