What’s New in RIMS Education?
Interview with RIMS Director of Professional Development, Vincent Seglior
What is your role in the Professional Development Department?
I have been with RIMS for eight years and focus primarily on the training and development needs and interests of risk professionals, supporting them in keeping their knowledge base current and relevant in this fast paced, changing world.
How do you develop the curriculum and choose teachers?
Our first step is to identify the needs of risk professionals and what would help them achieve successes in the workplace. Once a topic area is identified for our workshops, we find the best subject matter experts and ask them to submit a proposal, which is then submitted to RIMS Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC) consisting of a group of working risk practitioners to decide whether the course will be a two-day workshop or one.
I work with and coach the program developer on the instructional design of the program to make sure that it will be interactive and participatory. Another responsibility of the PDAC is to review the final presentation and decide whether to give course credit toward the RIMS Fellow (RF) designation or conduct it as a core professional development course.
What are the goals of RIMS Professional Development offerings?
Our goal is to make the professional development workshops and courses accessible to all RIMS members. We keep course fees low in order to make them affordable, and RIMS members get a discount to attend. We conduct them throughout North America. We can also schedule them at any chapter’s request if they can confirm that ten or more members will register for the event. When there is a need, we travel to a client’s facility to train their in-house staff. We have done these in-company training both in and outside the U.S.
How do webinars work?
We develop one-hour webinars on a timely subject or an organization or group of members will approach us with a topic that they have in mind. Our program manager, Kate Powers, works on all the technical aspects of the webinar. We like the fluidity that an online webinar provides—our presenters can be in their offices anywhere and our members are able to type in questions to the presenters during the presentation. So we make our webinars truly interactive with this live Q&A feature. Webinars have become even more popular this year and we archive all the webinars in the education section of RIMS website.
What can new RIMS members can look forward to in the upcoming months?
With travel and education budgets being cut RIMS has developed new options to meet the changing needs of risk professionals. In addition to webinars and recorded podcasts we have added new options such as RIMS On-line Course and 90 minute “mini-courses” called CourseCasts. Check out www.RIMS.org/Education for a complete listing of offerings.