Bangalore: HDFC Life, India’s leading private life insurance company, and Manipal Global, India’s leading learning solutions firm, have successfully completed second Smart Achievers Convocation Ceremony.

 The HDFC Life Smart Achievers (SA) Program is a Post Graduate Diploma in Insurance offered through a joint initiative between HDFC Life and Manipal Global. The year-long program nurtures highly skilled insurance professionals through a robust and rigorous training, imparting domain expertise and developing focused sales techniques with practical knowledge via a mix of 4-month classroom, 2-month on-the-job training and 6-month internship schedules.

The graduates are provided with excellent and rewarding career opportunities at HDFC Life. HDFC Life and Manipal Global had conducted a grand convocation ceremony to felicitate over 270 Smart Achievers from across the country, who were awarded the Post Graduate Diploma in Insurance (PGDI) on successfully completing the program.

HDFC  Life informed in a press statement that saving started in 2014, the Smart Achievers Program has since enrolled over 1600 students till Batch 26, as on December 2016. The graduates from the first ceremony, held earlier this year, got placement in different distribution channels like Bancassurance, Direct, Agency etc., within HDFC Life.

Commenting on the development,  Mr. Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO, HDFC Life said, “We had embarked on this journey with an ambition to contributing in our own way towards bridging the gap in unemployment amongst the youth in tier II and III cities while simultaneously boosting the quality of sales professionals in the insurance industry. The Smart Achievers Program was a result of that ambition coming to fruition.

Mr S. Vaitheeswaran, MD and CEO, Manipal Global said, “We are proud to have partnered with HDFC Life for the Smart Achievers Program, which has, over the last couple of years, helped over 1600 learners from tier II and tier III cities kick-start their careers in the insurance sector. The intensive learning program equips the learners with key functional and professional skills that are critical to both their success and the organization’s success. We are pleased to see that the graduates are performing extremely well at HDFC Life and look forward to continue contributing to the industry with our robust learning programs.”