The Actuarial Science Undergraduate Program at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia (FMIPA UI), held online training and education for high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, and practitioners such as actuarial consultants, accountants, bankers, and private sector employees across Indonesia on the first steps to becoming an actuary on Saturday (July 30). A total of 104 participants attended the event.

The event was opened by the Head of the Mathematics Department, Prof. Alhadi Bustamam, S.Si., M.Kom., Ph.D.. In his remarks, Prof. Alhadi said that this activity was an implementation of the community service program (pengmas) of the Actuarial Science Undergraduate Study Program to increase public insight into the scientific disciplines in the Mathematics Department, especially the Actuarial Science Undergraduate Study Program.

This community service activity also serves as a forum for sharing insights with the public and providing practical applications of the material discussed. This allows the public to understand that the initial steps to becoming an actuary are deeply embedded in everyday life. This initial step involves understanding the basic concept of interest rates.

Mila Novita, S.Si., M.Si., a lecturer at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia, specializing in Financial Mathematics, explained the basic concept of interest rates, including the definition of interest, the types of interest rates found in everyday practice, such as simple, compound, effective, and nominal interest, as well as several other terms frequently used in the financial industry.

“Actuaries really need to understand the concept of interest rates, because in practice, they’ll be performing valuations, one of which involves premiums,” Mila explained to the participants.

Furthermore, Mila said, in the Actuarial Science Study Program, FMIPA UI itself, there is a Life Contingency course or commonly known as Actuarial Mathematics which is used as the basis for valuation calculations.

In the Life Contingency course, interest rate concepts such as accumulation function, discount function,present valueandfuture valueare combined with probability elements.

“Therefore, it is fitting for an actuary to understand the basic concept of interest rates because actuarial science itself is a combination of mathematics, statistics, and economics, and it could be said that interest rates are an economic element even though there are several other factors,” he added.

In addition to the presentation by the speakers in the main room, participants then took part in an interactive session with the facilitators who were lecturers from the Undergraduate Actuarial Science Study Program, FMIPA UI, inthe Breakout Roomfeature .

Inthe Breakout Room,participants were grouped and given questions related to interest rates. While solving the questions, their groups were accompanied by their respective facilitators.

According to the appointed time, participants were then directed back tothe main roomto take part in theIce Breakingsession to relieve boredom after receiving a series of materials.

Finally, representatives from each group presented their answers and discussion results. Four groups of participants demonstrated their answers. The groups consisted of individuals from diverse professional and educational backgrounds.

The head of the community service committee, Sindy Devila, S.Si., M.Si., said that this activity aims to provide insight and an overview of the first steps to becoming an actuary. She hopes this activity will increase the preference of participants, especially high school and college students, for the actuarial field. Sindy said that based on data from the Indonesian Actuarial Association (PAI), the number of actuaries in Indonesia is still minimal, even though Indonesia needs at least 3,000 actuaries. Therefore, judging by these facts, the opportunity to become an actuary is very open.

“Regardless of whether each participant is ultimately motivated to become an actuary or not, understanding interest rates has a significant impact, particularly in enabling people to choose investment options or installment plans that are not detrimental,” he said.

He added that the scope of this activity has great potential for expansion, and plans are to hold the community service again in the coming months. Discussions for future community services will likely be more specific to a specific target level of participants, and implementation will be conducted offline.