NIS Sparta, Asia's largest performance enhancement solutions company offering interventions in the insurance sector, has emerged a leading market player. 
 
It has acquired a market share of 47 per cent and has trained over 71,106 agents. Starting with 2 centres in 2001, NIS Sparta now has 68 accredited centres across the country. 
 
Over the last three years, NIS Sparta has provided training to sales agents working for private life insurers such as HDFC Standard Life, ICICI Prudential Life, Birla Sun Life, Dabur-CGU, ING Vysya Bank Life, Tata AIG and non-life insurers such as Reliance, Sundaram Royal Sun Alliance, Iffco-Tokyo Marine and Oriental Insurance. 
 
According to the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority regulations, all insurance sales agents have to undergo a mandatory 100 hours of classroom training. 
 
NIS Sparta fulfills the IRDA training norms, which consist of around 70 per cent technical content on insurance (including the laws and Acts governing insurance and computation of premiums) and 30 per cent behavioural content such as customer handling, selling skills, presentation skills, customer service, recruitment, sensitisation programme and training sales agents on products. 
 
NIS Sparta vice-president (banking, finance and insurance) Goutam Roy says the 17-day course for grooming frontline insurance agents emphasises a lot on soft skills. 
 
Since most of the candidates are freshers, they are given a specific orientation about the insurance industry. The institute also imparts training on how to manage a team of 25-30 people. 
 
As in any other sector, the attrition rate in insurance is high. According to Roy, NIS Sparta urges candidates to create opportunities for themselves within the organisations they work for. 
 
Sources at IRDA say there are over 1,700 training institutes for insurance agents. NIS Sparta commands a 47 per cent share in this market. 
 
The fee for a 17-day course ranges between Rs 4,500 and Rs 12,000. The faculty are drawn from the industry and it is seen that they have at least 30-35 years of experience in the domain of insurance, or 10-15 years of experience in the corporate sector. NIS has developed corporate learning solutions for more than 550,000 professionals in over 550 organisations across 5 countries in 7 languages. 
 
The clients of NIS include Coca-Cola, Microsoft, ABN Amro, IOCL, IBP, GATI, 7C, EXL, Indian Railways, ICICI Prudential, HDFC Standard Life and others.

Taking cover 

• NIS Sparta started with 2 centres in 2001 and now has 68 accredited centres.
• The institute has provided training to sales agents working for private life insurers such as HDFC Standard Life, ICICI Prudential Life and Birla Sun Life.
• The clients of NIS include Coca-Cola, Microsoft, ABN Amro, IOCL, IBP, GATI, 7C, EXL and Indian Railways among and others.
• There are over 1,700 training institutes for insurance agents.