An Open Letter From The President

For many years, the CIP designation has been highly valued and respected within the national and international insurance community. Graduates have found the designation to be pivotal in advancing their careers and increasing their income. With over 10,000 members in the CIP Society, it would have been easy to maintain the status quo and let the designation continue to meet the professional and personal needs of brokers or agents, adjusters, underwriters or loss control specialists. But, the evolving changes within our industry have raised the bar, and it is incumbent upon The Insurance Institute of Canada to rise to the challenge.

P&C leaders from across the country have been consistent in their praise for the quality of our graduates and the contributions they have made. They have also identified areas that could be improved by modifying the CIP curriculum. The focus of these changes revolves around placing greater emphasis on knowledge application, which would make CIP graduates even more valuable to organizations.

After analyzing our industry's requests, we have undertaken to revise the CIP curriculum by adding more skill-based courses, and placing greater emphasis on the practical application of theoretical knowledge.

This process begins in September of 2004. At that time, new courses will be added and new requirements for graduation will be set. The number of courses necessary to graduate will be reduced from 12 to 10, but the selection of mandatory and elective subjects will be blended with a group of innovative applied professional courses and augmented with new texts and teaching aids.

By updating the CIP curriculum and increasing the value of the designation, we are responding to the needs our industry and enhancing the opportunities for our graduates.