Dive Brief:

• Visa Inc. is launching a certification program designed to train individuals as dispute resolution professionals, it announced Dec. 5. The role is in high demand across the payments ecosystem, Visa explained in a press release.
• The program will include multiple days of training and several professional-level certification exams, Visa said. The company will fund up to 500 scholarships for the program.
• "Private industry has an important role to play in helping equip the workforce with the skills needed for in-demand jobs," Visa's chairman and CEO Al Kelly said in a press release. "We need employers to actively assess workforce needs, promote skills-based recruitment and hiring and commit to workers’ lifelong skills development, which is critical to economic development."

Dive Insight:

Visa's move advances the promise it made to create training opportunities when it signed on to the White House's Pledge to America's Workers. That initiative, launched in 2018, asked employers and industry associations to collectively create 6 million such opportunities.

Employers say they're struggling to find qualified workers for a number of reasons: tech is evolving so rapidly that educators can't keep up; unemployment remains low; and the administration has clamped down on immigration.

Many, including the White House, say training for American workers is the answer, and employers have launched myriad upskilling efforts. Others have turned to previously untapped talent pools, focusing sourcing efforts on candidates with disabilities and those with criminal records, for example. Still more are relaxing degree requirements and giving drug testing policies a second look. Some are even reconsidering the necessity of testing for marijuana, especially in jurisdictions that have legalized the drug.