READER COMMENTARY: Looking for a College Major With Good Job Prospects? Consider a Future In Insurance

As Maryland’s longest-serving state insurance commissioner and a lifetime insurance professional, there is not much that surprises me in the insurance industry. In 2018, my chief of staff, Zach Peters, and I were meeting with prospective insurance carriers to enter the Maryland market and heard the common complaint that Maryland was not an attractive state to open an office due to a lack of qualified candidates with an insurance background. I was shocked to learn that no college in Maryland offered a degree in insurance or risk management, as similar programs were only offered by out-of-state schools requiring even our domestic carriers to leave the state to recruit new hires. As a matter of fact, many local insurers would typically retain interns from out-of-state colleges.

We immediately got to work meeting with officials and leaders of Maryland’s top universities and, after a long stretch of meetings, finally found a willing partner in the University of Baltimore and President Kurt Schmoke. Since 2019, University of Baltimore students have been able to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a Risk Management and Insurance specialization (”University of Baltimore to launch degree program to boost local insurance workforce,” Feb. 22, 2019). We helped the school put together an impressive advisory board of leading insurance experts and employers throughout the state, who not only advise on the program content, but act as a pipeline for employment for graduates. In fact, in the very short time the program has existed there are already a few graduates who are employed in the insurance industry.