“We are facing a global talent shortage,” said Tommy Marshall, executive director of the new Georgia Fintech Academy, by way of an answer to the question: why was your organization formed.
It’s an ambitious undertaking. The idea is to pull together resources from 26 Georgia public universities – including Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and Georgia Southern – and to offer students the opportunity to earn a degree focused on fintech.
Right now, the emphasis is on a bachelors degree program but there are plans for an advanced degree as well as professional development courses.
Understand this: Georgia has gotten a jump on other states. Nowhere else is there such a sweeping program that draws upon a wide range of institutions, all joining together to produce grads with degrees that will help them get good, well paying, interesting work.
Marshall of course is looking for companies that want to hire grads – FIS is already a primary program sponsor – and he specifically saus in this podcast that he wants to hear from credit unions. If you have needs for fintech grads and you are in Georgia, shout it out because this might become an answered prayer.
In the program, Marshall tells exactly why Georgia started the Academy, how he got his job, and why this all just may be very important to economic development in Georgia.
What are people saying about your credit union?
That means members, staff, and community members?
And how does a nasty hack impact your reputation?
Meet Casy Boggs of ReputationUS, where the business is in fact reputation management and a primary emphasis is work with credit unions.
You think you have a great reputation? Don’t guess. Know. Get a reputation audit done and be prepared to be surprised by the results.
Particularly interesting is how a hack impacts a credit union’s reputation, a topic Boggs has studied in depth.
Among his findings: 48% of us are very unlikely to remain a member if their data has been hacked and then used to set up a bogus credit card account.
Good news, per the survey, is the vast majority of us hold credit unions in high reputational esteem.
But don’t take it for granted.
Boggs says in this podcast that too many institutions are unprepared to deal with events that involve a reputational hit – they lack a plan and a plan can smooth the path to recovery.
Bad stuff happens. Are you prepared?
Find out what’s involved in this podcast.
Teach them when they are young.
That’s the approach to financial education taken by John Lanza of the Money Mammals, where the focus is on financial education for children 11 and under.
A key: the education becomes a family project. That means credit unions – and credit unions can sign up with the Money Mammals to access its library of teaching materials and workbooks – will be attracting younger adults with small children.
The material also is branded with the credit union name.
And the financial education itself of course is a key credit union mission.
Lanza stresses that good as it is for kids to get financial education in school, it’s crucial that they also get it at home because they need some money to learn with. Call it allowance and know it can be small. But that money becomes a teaching tool.
Lanza said he presently is working with 15 credit unions and he wants more. Some are under $200 million, one is bigger than $3 billion. So the program will work in just about any size institution.
Give a listen and just maybe you will be persuaded to focus on financial ed and children, the Money Mammals way.