Last modified: 2009-09-07
Abstract
Croatian insurance market passed through significant changes during the last ten years. The number of insurance companies, mainly in foreign ownership, had increased, and a total amount of insurance portfolio, especially life insurance, achieved a significant growth as well. New types of insurance products that are adapted to the needs of both the individual consumers and the companies were introduced on the market. As a result, the number of participants in the Croatian insurance industry had raise. At the same time, although the insurance business is a legal business with long-term economical effects, the system of education for both the insurance employees and the general population is left to insurance companies, to companies specialized for training the insurance agents and, nowadays more often, to a few institutions of high education. The traditional model of a system of education is changing slowly, and the providers of insurance products often do not recognise the possibilities offered by the whole life learning supported by the information technologies, especially e-learning.
In this work the models of organization of education used in insurance industry in Croatia and the world are discussed. SWOT analysis, conducted in the context of implementing the e-learning model in insurance industry in Croatia, has shown the potential of this model, and also provided guidelines for its further development according to legal regulations that determine the protection of the insurance products' customers by defining the informing system. The need for connecting the economy and the institutions of high education is also recognized, for these institutions can offer professional help in development of e-learning models adapted to the needs of specific economic branch.