KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Fayval Williams, says lucrative job opportunities are available in the field of actuarial science, and more students should pursue this field of study.
“It is not overcrowded by any stretch of the imagination, but it requires that you really work hard, apply yourself, and at the end the rewards are great. Surveys show that the job of actuarial science is ranked in the top 10 of all jobs. It is highly respected, it is very well paying….and it is a field of study that dates back many centuries,” the minister said.
She was addressing Massy United Insurance’s scholarship handover ceremony held at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus yesterday. The scholarships were awarded to students pursuing actuarial science studies at UWI.
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Williams congratulated the two scholarship recipients, Mark Brown and Antonique Aris, for taking on this area of study, pointing out that the study of actuarial science “makes sense in today’s economy, because of the concerns with real life problems”.
“What is beautiful is that more and more actuarial science is being used outside of the traditional areas. It is applied to the social sciences to solve important problems for Government, such as in the area of criminal justice, and I am sure there are other areas to which actuarial science is [applicable],” she said.
The minister further pointed out that actuarial science thinks about the future, noting that graduates learn how to use mathematics, statistics and probability principles to anticipate future events and take preventative measures.
“In my estimation, actuarial science students have excellent quantitative reasoning skills, in addition to an understanding of modern business and finance. In today’s rapidly changing world, especially in the area of technology, the demand for your skills have become even greater than in previous years,” she said.
In the meantime, Williams thanked Massy Insurance for the contributions to education made over the years and for now focusing on actuarial science. The actuarial science scholarship, valued at US$10,000 ($1.4 million), was established out of UWI’s Global Giving Initiative.
For 2020, the UWI Global Giving Programme focused on raising small donations from a large number of alumni and friends to assist with scholarships and bursaries, supporting students whose finances, and that of their parents, had been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
That campaign officially commenced on August 1, 2020, and ran for that entire month.
SOURCE: “Education minister encourages more students to pursue studies in actuarial science” in the Jamaica Observer.
