There is a growing need for risk management certification in the global job market as firms require expertise to handle risks and exposures. A certified risk professional has a competitive advantage over others because of a unique set of skills such as risk management, ethics and leadership which enables them to fit in multiple roles within an organisation. MANCOSA offers a Postgraduate Diploma in Risk Management a very important risk management qualification that addresses the critical skills shortage in the job market. If you are contemplating a career in risk management you need to understand how you can carve out a career path to become a risk management specialist. You need to understand what risk management is, what risk management professionals do, the career opportunities in the field and how to obtain risk management certification.
What is risk management?
Risk can be viewed as the combination of the probability of an event and the impact of its consequences. Events with a negative impact represent risks that can prevent value creation or erode existing value. Risk management is applied in strategy-setting and across the enterprise. The discipline of risk management and qualifications like Postgraduate Diploma in Risk Management involves identifying potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, whilst providing reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of an entity’s objectives.
Risk management involves control and prevention of adverse events which may lead to losses. This is required in a wide range of industries and organizations giving a wide range of options for a career path. Risk management professionals ensure legal compliance and implementation of governance frameworks from regulatory bodies. It is essential to create risk management plans in business proposals to obtain funding and investment. The scope of risk management covers:
- Strategic planning
- Operations
- Processes
- Financial Risks
Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a new concept that revolutionizes the traditional approach and summarizes risk management as an integrated, comprehensive and strategic system.
What are the 5 steps of risk management?
The five steps of risk management include the following:
- Risk identification
- Risk Assessment
- Risk Evaluation
- Risk Mitigation
- Risk Monitoring
What does a risk manager do?
A risk manager establishes the firm’s risk appetite, identify risks the business is exposed to and manage those risks. Risk managers are involved in strategic planning and business operations; they create business continuity plans to limit risks. The duties of a risk manager also include:
- risk reporting
- corporate governance
- health and safety
- conducting policy and compliance audits
- Designing and implementing overall risk management process
What risk managers do is largely dependent on the industry in which they operate. In general they collect and analyse data to identify internal and external risks and make suggestions for change of risk policy.
Risk Management Examples
There are various types of risk management. Some of examples of these include:
- Commodity price risk deals with fluctuations in the price of commodities such as oil, copper, platinum gold, resources etc., affects cost of factors of production. For example: A flour making plant anticipating a rise in the price of wheat in the next twelve months can make use of a forward contract to hedge against price increase of their raw material.
- Firms are financed with either debt or equity, the higher the debt relative to equity makes a firm highly risky. The risk which is a function of the source capital used is called financial risk.
- Financial risk increases the risk of bankruptcy which is a legal proceeding against firms who cannot repay debt.
- Compliance risk relates to the need for firms to comply with certain laws for licensing and operations within the industries they operate, failure to comply for instance can lead to penalties or license revocation.
Careers in risk management
Risk managers analyse and implement ways to prevent losses from occurring. To study a risk management certification, you need an undergraduate degree preferably in risk management. You can also apply for a postgraduate diploma in risk management if you have any of the following qualifications:
- Financial management
- Business management
- Economics
- Accounting
An advanced degree in a quantitative discipline such as statistics, computer science for cyber security and other disciplines are also eligible for risk management roles. Risk management certifications acquired help specialisations and job growth. Risk management job titles include but are not limited to some of the following:
- risk analyst
- insurance analyst
- loss control representative
- risk consultant
- risk control consultant
- risk management consultant
- risk manager
- business risk manager
- corporate risk manager
Firms like IBM provide compressive solutions in managing cyber risk, they assess, reduce and manage information security risk.
Getting a Risk Management Qualification
MANCOSA offers a Postgraduate Diploma in Risk Management that is fully accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and registered with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). The programme is aimed at building advanced skills and knowledge in the field of risk management. The growing need to understand and mitigate risk found within an organisation has given rise to the importance of risk management. Through the implementation of risk management, organisations become more resilient and robust when faced with events or situations that have a direct influence on the operations of an organisation. Obtaining a risk management qualification through MANCOSA facilitates a streamlined approach needed by organisations to combat the broad negative effects of risks that are unforeseen while strengthening and deepening knowledge of risk mitigation.
The Postgraduate Diploma in Risk Management is directed at those individuals wishing to pursue a qualification with an emphasis on organisational risk management. Graduates develop skills and the knowledge required to effectively support scenario planning and risk mitigation.
Study Risk Management with MANCOSA
MANCOSA offers opportunities to students from numerous disciplines eligible to study for a risk management certification. If you are passionate about the business environment and the internal operations which affect the viability and profitability of a business, visit our page on the Postgraduate Diploma in Risk Management to find out how you can pursue a career in risk and develop your skills to meet global standards and governance frameworks.