Background
esure Group, part of Ageas UK, is one of the UK’s leading providers of Motor and Home insurance products through the esure, Sheilas’ Wheels and First Alternative brands. esure is focused on using their market-leading technology platform insights and data with fantastic customer service to deliver more personalised experiences that meet the evolving needs and expectations of its customers.
In 2025, esure celebrates its milestone 25th anniversary, marking decades of innovation as pioneers of providing insurance online. Recently, the company undertook a major digital transformation programme - a game-changing strategy spanning technology, data, processes, customer experience and culture towards becoming the UK’s leading digital insurer.
esure replaced its patchwork of legacy systems with a modern 100% cloud-native, full stack digital platform designed to support new product offerings and future growth. Since completing migration last year, the company has seen significant improvements in customer satisfaction and employee experience.
Business Need
Jonathan Berzins is the DevOps & SRE Tech Lead at esure. He leads the DevOps Team, a group of around 25 engineers responsible for managing esure’s services and products. The digital transformation brought exciting build-outs, while rising to the challenge of maintaining older systems behind the scenes alongside the new while the project was underway, and deadlines were tight.
As the migration progressed, the focus shifted more towards the new systems and Jonathan’s role evolved from contributing towards the build to overseeing the team. Jonathan identified an opportunity to upskill the team and ensure their technical proficiency in key Cloud infrastructure platforms and tools, chiefly Kubernetes and Helm.
The Brief
esure’s DevOps team demand a great degree of flexibility and scalability from these technologies, requiring a customised learning approach. To meet their learning goals, we would need to align the proposed training with their specific environment and project workflows.
Jonathan and the team had encountered difficulties sourcing the right training provider in the past. They discovered Framework Training via online search and were drawn to us as a UK-based company with a personable and approachable feel. After reaching out to several providers, they found us especially receptive and eager to discuss their specific needs. Rather than offering a standard, off-the-shelf course we were committed to tailoring the training to suit their goals. As a strong advocate of face-to-face training, Jonathan was particularly pleased that we could accommodate their preference for in-person sessions.
We arranged preparatory discussions with our trainer, Ian, to explore esure’s needs further. Thanks to Jonathan’s deep familiarisation with the technology, he quickly recognised Ian is knowledgeable and has worked with the technology in a real-world setting. Together, they discussed potential course content, tailoring it specifically to their requirements rather than delivering a standard course. Ian made a strong impression during these discussions, engaging in a productive conversation about shaping the course — identifying key focus areas and streamlining content to strip out anything irrelevant.
This approach ensured the training time was maximised and aligned with their busy schedules.
The Solution
Framework Training delivered a carefully customised Kubernetes and Helm Workshop syllabus over four days, in person at esure’s office in Surrey.
To accommodate varying skill levels in the team, we delivered two training sessions, each with 10 learners - one cohort from Jonathan’s team and another open to anyone in IT. While the delegates had different levels of experience with the system, all were highly skilled technical professionals with strong IT backgrounds.
Ian customised the training to align with individual skill sets, ensuring the content was relevant and that learning could be applied swiftly.
Feedback
Jonathan and the team at esure have shared incredibly positive feedback, particularly in the following areas.
In-person delivery
The team highlighted that in-person training helped them stay focused and allowed valuable face-to-face time with their colleagues. They also appreciated the commitment from esure’s senior leadership team to develop their skills with a dedicated workshop, especially after an intense and busy transformation programme.
Tailored content
The delegates considered the workshop a great success as the training content was tailored to their specific needs. It was aligned with their requirements, allowing them to learn relevant skills that kept them engaged, focused and on track throughout.
Teaching style and connection with the trainer
They were impressed with Ian’s teaching style and found him not only to be technically proficient, but also a genuinely nice person to interact with. His personality resonated with the team, and several engineers have continued to engage with Ian on LinkedIn, fostering a professional connection. We’re thrilled that, as well as imparting invaluable knowledge, we also provided a memorable experience that had a lasting impact.
Great fit with us as a training company
Jonathan and the team felt we truly understood their needs, and shared a similar mindset to them, making it a great fit. Overall, they found the experience highly positive.
Living our Ethical Values
With their own mission to ‘Fix Insurance for Good’, esure felt that ethical and sustainable approach aligns closely with their values, including making a positive impact for colleagues, customers and the communities they serve. They mentioned that these shared values would influence their decision to work with us again in the future.
Impact
The learners have seamlessly applied the skills they gained during the training to their day-to-day work. Since completing the workshop, the engineers responsible for managing the production environment have continued to expand their expertise. Most importantly, their confidence in working with the technology has noticeably improved. With this particular technology, learning is an ongoing journey, and the team has embraced that mindset.
If another upskilling opportunity emerged at esure, the team would consider working with Framework Training again. They appreciated our personal touch along with our professionalism, found the customisation of the training content invaluable and were impressed by how well we understood their business. We are delighted to hear this!
Our special thanks to Jonathan and Joanne McTavish, Senior Brand Marketing Manager at esure for their invaluable knowledge and input.