The idea for an internal traineeship arose in late 2023. 'Many application managers have retired in recent years,' says Naomi Stol, Lead Consultancy at ANVA. 'The market shortage was growing, and customer demand was growing. The plan was as follows: hire, train and second people to interested customers ourselves. Six trainees have since started successfully as ANVA application administrators with their new employers.'
Cees Hupkes, Talent Acquisition Specialist at ANVA, led the recruitment process. "We were looking for people who wanted to be retrained into an IT role, which meant we also had to assess them for something they've never done before. So our trainees came from very different backgrounds: a math teacher, a biologist, a car salesman. For me, genuine, intrinsic motivation and the abilities to perform the role were most important.'
Wybren Nauta was a math teacher who, after twelve years of teaching, traded in his job for retraining through ANVA. His intrinsic motivation was spot on: five days a week he traveled from Leeuwarden to Amersfoort for the training. 'I started with hardly any knowledge of insurance and the ANVA software,' he says. 'But in six weeks we laid a solid foundation, which allowed me to get off to a good start as an automation employee at FGD in Leeuwarden.'
Naomi's responsibilities for the content of the program included. 'We started with the basics: how do underwriters, claims handlers and finance staff use ANVA? As an application manager, it is crucial that you understand how the software works for the users. Then we went into depth.' For Wybren, going through the process of product building was especially valuable. 'This allowed me to get straight to work in my first week at FGD,' he says.
Our traineeship proved attractive not only to candidates - a job guarantee, no study debt and a full salary - but also to employers. 'For years we had a shortage of ANVA knowledge and no capacity to train people ourselves,' says Raymond Meilink, Project Coordinator Application Management at Alpina, who now employs a trainee from the traineeship. 'It was an intensive process, but definitely worthwhile. We now have knowledge we can use for years to come.'
Naomi, Cees and the trainees look back on the traineeship with great satisfaction. 'We get a lot of positive feedback from both sides,' says Naomi. Cees adds, 'We have trained motivated lateral entrants and addressed the shortage of application administrators.' Wybren especially appreciated the cooperation with the other trainees. Fellow trainee Robert Heilhof agrees: 'You learn the most from each other. Now it is time to let the puzzle pieces fall into place in practice.'
Wybren, Robert and the other trainees started their new jobs in October and will return to ANVA every month for the next 11 months. 'There they can ask any questions they encounter in practice,' says Naomi. 'In addition, we provide training on topics and trends from the market.' Whether there will be a new traineeship, Naomi does not know at this time. 'We are going to evaluate in March, then we will know whether it has been a sustainable solution.'
Check out any of the links below to read more about our traineeships.
From math teacher to ANVA administrator: 'I found the challenge again'
Reskillingto IT: 'How often do you get the chance for such a career switch?'〉.
ANVA trainees receive diploma: 'I can now make a flying start in practice'
