Graduate Trainee - Credit & Political Risks
Start date: October 2026
Applications close: Friday 31st July
Our Graduate Program
You'll join a 12-month development experience designed for recent graduates ready to build a meaningful career in insurance. From day one, you'll learn how different risks are assessed, placed, and managed, while building the technical and commercial skills needed to advise clients effectively.
You'll develop your analytical, commercial, and consulting skills through on-the-job learning, structured support, and exposure to experienced colleagues across the business. You'll also be supported by a dedicated mentor and, upon successful completion, transition into a permanent role at Howden.
As a graduate, you'll gain exposure to three specialist areas:
- Trade Credit — how businesses protect themselves when customers do not pay for goods or services provided on credit.
- Structured Credit — how insurance can support more complex financial arrangements where repayment risk needs to be understood and managed.
- Political Risk — how political, economic, or country-specific events can affect contracts, payments, and investments.
What you'll be doing
Throughout the programme, you'll:
- Gain hands-on experience supporting brokers with trade credit, structured credit, and political risk solutions.
- Learn how businesses use insurance to help manage non-payment risk, support financial resilience, and trade or invest with greater confidence.
- Work alongside experienced colleagues to understand client needs, review relevant information, and support discussions with insurers.
- Help analyse options and develop clear, practical recommendations that support client decision-making.
- Build an understanding of how commercial, financial, political, and economic factors can affect contracts, payments, lending, investment, and international trade.
- Collaborate with broking, placement, claims, analytics, and support teams to deliver high-quality service to clients across the insurance lifecycle.
- Participate in training, networking, and development opportunities designed to build your commercial awareness, technical knowledge, confidence, and professional skills.
What are we looking for
We're looking for recent graduates who are excited to learn, commercially curious, and interested in how businesses manage financial, commercial, and geopolitical risk. A degree in economics, finance, law, or a related subject would be particularly relevant, but we're also interested in candidates with strong analytical ability, attention to detail, and genuine curiosity about this area.
You'll thrive in this role if you are:
- Curious about finance, economics, law, global trade, emerging markets, and how businesses manage uncertainty.
- Comfortable working with data and numbers; experience using Excel, including formulas and pivot tables, would be beneficial.
- A relationship builder who enjoys connecting with people, communicating clearly, and working collaboratively with clients and colleagues.
- Resilient and motivated, with the ability to take ownership and keep moving things forward.
- A practical problem-solver with a positive, solutions-focused mindset and an eagerness to keep learning.
Ready to build your future with Howden
- Apply now through the link provided and take the first step towards a rewarding career with us.
