Education, education

It has been a difficult year for the Institute of Risk Management (IRM). Financial difficulties, the resignations of five examiners, a bitter employment dispute and falling membership numbers were the problems facing Mark Butterworth when he was elected chairman at a delayed AGM in February.

If symptoms remain of the difficulties of the past year, they were not on display at the annual conference attended by more than 200 delegates and guests last week.

Both Butterworth and new executive director Steve Fowler were resolutely forward-looking and positive about the future of the organisation that was founded in 1984 as the educational arm of UK risk management.

Butterworth announced the launch of the IRM Foundation, an initiative that will be a central forum for the design, development and implementation of the institute's new educational programme. Its aim is to ensure IRM training keeps responding to risk managers' changing needs and to best practice.

The IRM is currently undertaking a major review of its examination syllabus in conjunction with risk management academics at Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Nottingham, and with employers, practitioners and students. It aims to have a new programme in place for the start of the next academic year in September 2003.

Syllabus development through the foundation is also linked to the new risk management standard that received its general launch and first public discussion on the second morning of the conference. The standard is a joint project of the IRM, Airmic and Alarm.

Although the relationship between the IRM and Airmic is a close one, Fowler is at pains to explain why the two organisations should not merge their conferences.

"The IRM needs to keep the distinctive educational quality of the IRM conference," says Fowler. The conference should really be seen as "a continuous learning event," says Fowler. Not only is it held in academic surroundings, but the IRM deliberately chooses not to have a simultaneous trade exhibition.

The IRM says it has a two-fold educational role: setting a base level of education for the modern risk manager; educating new entrants into the profession; and providing continuous learning for those who have qualified.

Part of this role is to broaden the skills of the risk manager more fully into the whole range of an organisation's risks.

"The breadth of IRM today is not what you would expect from an organisation that was totally insured focused," explains Fowler.

The conference stresses new aspects of risk with keynote presentations covering managing contingent liabilities, investments risk management, and programmes and projects.

The greater part of the conference, chaired by Lord Hunt of Wirral, former cabinet minister and senior partner in the law firm Beachcroft Wansbroughs, was devoted to workshops. Each day offered a choice of nine or ten topics ranging from the more traditional insurance and claims related subjects to enterprise-wide issues.

Having deliberately chosen not to compete with Airmic for exhibition income, the IRM has turned to sponsors to help fund the conference. The 2002 conference, says Fowler, made "a significant profit" in marked contrast to last year. Nearly half the workshops had commercial sponsors.

There are other signs that the wounds of the past year are healing. Membership is around 1,600 - nothing like the dire numbers forecast by the most pessimistic in the middle of the crisis. There is increased emphasis on communication with members. Nine new directors have been appointed. IRM's website and journal InfoRM have been relaunched.

"None of this could have been achieved without the corporate support of six sponsors who have come forward and the special support of Norwich Union and ACE for the journal," says Butterworth. He also acknowledges the support of XL Winterthur International and Royal & SunAlliance for the IRM Foundation.

In the summer, the IRM put out a call to members for new examiners, and Fowler says: "We have been inundated with well-qualified examiners." There has been a net gain of between 10 and 20 new examiners, which means that there is now more than one available for each core subject in the syllabus.

The contract for examiners has been enhanced. For the first time, it sets out clearly what they are expected to do and when, so that students have their results on time. In return, the examiners will receive a rise of 20% to 25% in their fees, although Fowler stresses the amounts involved are not large.

"We are seeing a real groundswell of support," says Butterworth.