After nine months, the Airmic Academy has taken stock of how it has so far delivered knowledge and skills for different grades of risk management professionals. In particular, the exercise has highlighted soft skills as something it should offer in future.

The Academy is gradually being moulded to more accurately reflect the needs of the Airmic members with regard to their careers, said former Airmic chief executive David Gamble, who leads it. Several themes for 2010 are emerging, notably supply chain, information risk management and human resources risk management.

Gamble said that brokers in particular, who are used to dealing with senior managers in their clients’ business in functions such as procurement, finance and human resources, have been very supportive in helping risk managers increase the scope of their operations.

The Academy is also changing the way its sessions are delivered so that members learn by analysing and discussing problems.

“This approach should provide incremental growth in skills and we hope that by clustering sessions so there is more than just one on a key subject, members will be able to make really useful improvements in their understanding,” Gamble said.