Do you boast, or at least talk, about your work in payments at social events? When I tell someone in a social setting that I work in payments, they either move on, after a polite pause, to meet the next person, or they take a deep breath and ask, “What does that entail?” What is most humbling is when I overhear my husband trying to explain my job. And what has been the most entertaining was when a four-year old asked me to perform an interpretive dance representing my occupation—a payments Nutcracker, if you will. Whatever the circumstance, you have to be ready to engage and convey excitement about all things payments to keep our workforce thriving. The industry is growing so rapidly that many employers are struggling to fill positions.
Many people I meet assume I am a mathematician when I talk about my work in payments. While I do own a calculator, I tell them, people in the payments workforce have diverse skill sets that go above and beyond using calculators. This diversity becomes more important every day, as technology keeps growing and changing. Ultimately, the majority of the population may not care how payments work, and they may not care to see an interpretive dance about payments. But there are dedicated, skilled professionals who, thankfully, perform their payments-related jobs safely and efficiently. And we need more of them.
The payments industry is growing. Fintechs alone account for a good portion of this growth. According to an industry research firm, venture capital-backed fintech companies globally raised a total of $5.2 billion in the second quarter of this year—–a 19 percent increase from last year. U.S. fintech funding saw a 58 percent rise, to $1.9 billion in the second quarter this year compared to $1.2 billion in the first quarter.
We need a more robust pipeline of available workers to support the growth in the industry. We need to both cultivate new talent and attract available skilled talent. This task can be daunting given the range of jobs available in the industry that transcend traditional educational curriculums.
Here are just a very few of many inspiring workforce training initiatives supporting industry growth today:
- FinTech Atlanta, along with the University System of Georgia and other colleges and universities in Georgia, launched a FinTech Degree and Certificate Programs to create needed talent to fuel the fintech workforce.
- NACHA, with the regional payments associations, has launched a Payments Risk Professional accreditation program. The program brings together skills for managing risk combined with knowledge in payment services, whether for financial institutions, solution providers, processors, businesses, or other end users.
- Workforce Innovation Hub, sponsored by Accenture and affiliated with Atlanta's City of Refuge, provides nonprofit technical education options to lift the underemployed and underprivileged. The IT training program teaches software and application development, IT support, web development, graphic design, and more—all skills that can be put to use in payments and fintechs.
- Some professional development programs work with military veterans, offering career opportunities and education resources that can help prepare them for careers in the payments industry. One example is First Data Salutes; another is Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and its affiliated program Entrepreneurs Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities.
Be a payments ambassador at your next social event and talk about your favorite payments initiative. It is up to you to decide if you want to perform an interpretive dance of your payments job—but it's up to all of us to keep our workforce growing at pace with the industry.
By Jessica Washington, AAP, payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed