As our international presence continues to grow, we want to be able to reach you in a more personal way so that you get a feel for the sort of things we are doing to help build the international membership community.

This month you will see the fantastic initatives being displayed by the TAAU (The Actuarial Association of Uganda) and ASSK (Actuarial Students' Society of Kenya) who are engaging with members in those regions. We are always interested to find out what our members are involved in, so that we can advertise your events, talks and presentations and support you in many other ways. You can send your ideas to our international newsletter team.

We have also launched the education material for the Certified Actuarial Analyst (CAA). You can read more about this in the newsletter and on our webpages.

We encourage you to come along to meet with our representatives to network with your peers or to provide feedback through volunteering or participating in local overseas communities or by giving us some feedback on our presence internationally by emailing us.

Derek Cribb

Chief Executive, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

We have launched the education material for the Certified Actuarial Analyst (CAA) via our website.

It is expected that the CAA will help insurers meet the new IRA guidelines (Insurance Regulatory Authority) for actuarial functions, by creating a new professional qualification and regulated membership category aimed at analysts working in technical and actuarial support roles.

There has been concern that, following the IRA’s new guidance, insurers would struggle to meet new professionalism requirements as the supply of qualified actuaries falls short of the numbers needed. The new CAA will mean that qualified actuaries can oversee a department of CAA qualified professional analysts and technicians, fulfilling the IRA guidance criteria.

You can find more information about the exams, syllabuses and key dates and contacts on the CAA webpages.

To discuss how your company can benefit from the CAA, please contact Robert Jelly, or email caa@actuaries.org.uk to join our mailing list and receive up to date information about the CAA.

Daisy explains to the IFoA her reasons for choosing to become an actuary, how she is finding the qualification and also offers some advice to those considering an actuarial career.

"I didn't always aspire to be an actuary when I was growing up. Then one year into high school, I caught wind of a course called Actuarial Science. Rumour had it, that it was apparently really complicated. In my mind, there was no way something could be that hard!

"Setting your sights on a professional actuarial qualification is a good start on the path to a successful actuarial career. I recommend the UK IFoA.

"My ultimate career goal is to attain the full qualification. Isn't that what all student actuaries hope for?"

You can read more of Daisy's profile here.

On 24 January, the IFoA launched its Volunteer Induction Pack (VIP). This new online resource was created to provide information and support to the 3000+ members who actively participate in IFoA activities. You can access the VIP here. We hope you will find it useful and worthwhile and look forward to hearing what you think.

If you would like to get involved with volunteering, and make a difference to your profession, please contact Debbie Atkins to register your interest. Below are just a few of the vacancies available.

Digital Volunteer Group - this is a great opportunity to get involved with two very important projects which will have long term benefits for the actuarial profession - the web testing of IFoA’s new website and the creation of a virtual learning environment (VLE).

400 Club - The 400 Club is currently full. However, we are actively seeking members of the IFoA to volunteer to join the reserve list.  We require a wide representation of the membership on the reserve list.  When a vacancy becomes available a new member of the 400 Club is selected from the reserve list to best match the profile of the member who is stepping down.

To view details and to find out about all other current IFoA volunteer opportunities view our Volunteer vacancies web page.