We do a lot of hand-wringing in our industry about the lack ofyoung talent and the urgency of recruiting the good ones beforeevery single independent agent in America leaps lemming-like intoretirement. We've known for a long time that insurance has an imageproblem and that we can't keep applying the same principles torecruiting and hiring and expecting a different result.

But smart organizations are doing something about attractingyoung people by going directly to the source. That's the thinkingover at The Council of InsuranceAgents & Brokers, which recently announced a new studentcompetition that not only targets young people, but was designed bythem.

Sponsored by its FAME charitable and educational arm – theFoundation of Agency Management Excellence – and open to riskmanagement students at FAME's universities, the “Dream, Risk, Win”competition challenges teams of up to five students to craft aplan addressing a complex industry issue over the course of anacademic semester. The bait? A top award of $10,000.

“Our industry's traditional hiring paradigm has never beenfocused on recruiting the younger generation, but rather on'churning and burning' hires from the competition. But we're in anew world now,” said Julia Kramer, SVP of leadership and managementsources at The Council.

The association has been working on the issue of how to engageyounger generations in the insurance industry for several years,and has developed a number of initiatives. They reach out tocollege students through their scholarship program and conductworkshops at the member level to develop leadership among theyoungest employees. The Council also generates publications likethe “HottestCareer You've Never Heard Of” booklet that's sent out toparticipating FAME universities to educate faculty and careercounselors on the industry. And they maintain an active memberambassador program that connects with students at FAME universitiesfor internships and jobs.

But this latest program is different because it was actuallycreated by young people.

The Council asked its own young employees and college interns tohelp design a program that would grab the attention of their peers.The young team came up with the questions and helped design thecontest's web page and marketing material.

The two challenges are:

1. Recruiting for the Future. How can thecommercial brokerage industry attract the new generation into itsworkforce?

2. Future Broker Model. What will the futurebrokerage business model look like?

Competitors are also welcome to attack another issue as long asit's relevant to the industry.

Students will work with faculty advisors to develop a 2-3 minutepreliminary video “elevator pitch” project overview; a final5-minute video; and a written business plan addressing theissue.

The competition deadline is Jan. 31, 2013, with winners expectedto be announced by May. Awards will be presented in October at TheCouncil's Insurance Leadership Forum in Colorado.

For detailed information on the competition, go tohttp://www.ciab.com/FAME/DreamRiskWin/