A summer intern programme aimed at giving students a taste of work in the insurance industry has kicked off.

A total of six students, four Bermudian and two from overseas, yesterday started the three-week programme, run by the Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies.

The six will learn how to form an insurance company and shadow industry professionals like underwriters, actuaries and brokers.

Catherine Lapsley, the executive director of BFIS, said: “BFIS has been running this programme since 2002 and we are very grateful to the companies and their employees who host the students each year and are so generous with their time and knowledge.”

She added: “We also thank Allied World Assurance, who sponsor the Bermuda programme.”

Bermudians undergraduates taking part are Anna Harrington, studying financial economics at the University of Western Ontario, Megan Knight, a maths student at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, Aaron Nelson, a business student at the University of Hertfordshire in England and Katie Stevenson, studying specialisation of globalisation at the University of Western Ontario.

They will be joined by Judy Cheng, an actuarial science student, and Emily Tomaszewski, a business administration student, from the Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State University.

More than 30 of the top companies in Bermuda take part in the programme.

The BFIS summer intern programme is open to students aiming to work in the insurance industry and gives them exposure to the markets in Bermuda, or overseas in London, Chicago or Atlanta.

A total of 129 students have completed the programme since it started 14 years ago and 99 per cent of them are now employed in the insurance sector.

On July 21, participants will make a presentation to BFIS and participating firms on what they have learnt.

Anyone interested in signing up for next year’s internships should contact BFIS at info@bfis.bm.