Visa University: Setting the Standard in Upskilling Payments Professionals

Visa University (VU) is Visa’s flagship platform for payments capability building, offering engaging, immersive training programs to help payments professionals grow their expertise, add value to their organizations and boost their professional credibility. As a trusted learning and development partner, Visa University seeks to offer practical training and payments insights for professionals at any career stage – whether participants are new to payments or are subject matter experts.

Visa Navigate sits down with Walter Lironi, Head of Visa Consulting & Analytics for the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region, to explore the world of Visa University and how, in partnership with Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA), the team is delivering world-class capability building for payments professionals.

Q1: Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA) has broadened its scope of diverse practices by incorporating capability building into its portfolio. The VCA team, comprised of consultants, data scientists, payment experts and economists, is now joined by the Visa University (VU) team. What idea guided this decision, and what are the main benefits for clients, partners and stakeholders?

The guiding principle is quite simple. We strive to deliver unparalleled sustainable impact in everything we do at VCA. The key lever to achieve this is to ensure we create and deliver new opportunities for development and upskilling, aimed at supporting our clients, partners and stakeholders by empowering their teams. Embedding the Visa University platform, with its comprehensive offering, will allow us to build modules that can be used to improve client performance effectively, providing new, carefully curated content to address their specific needs.

This new approach will combine unique insights from the VCA and VU teams, alongside sharing inspiring use cases and best practice examples from around the world. This will be reflected in new courses and certification programs designed for a breadth of stakeholders, within and beyond financial institutions. Courses and programs will continue to be updated regularly to respond to ever-changing industry trends, and to address participants’ feedback and emerging needs.

Find the Perfect Course for Your Needs with VU

• Payments landscape – providing an in-depth look into the world of payments, while helping participants understand the many aspects of the payments industry and build a foundation for future success.
• Portfolio management – helping to build the skills needed to grow a successful card portfolio and solve business challenges. Designed to give practical insights on key areas such as card profitability, marketing, risk management and data analysis.
• Fraud – allowing participants to stay up to date on the latest fraud reduction strategies. The courses deliver vital information on current threats and the fraud and risk management tools and tactics available to combat them.
• Dispute resolution – designed to expand participants’ understanding of Visa rules, dispute conditions and case filings, plus how to use Visa Resolve Online to manage the dispute process.
• Cybersecurity – teaching how to safeguard payments in today’s ever-evolving digital landscape. The courses are designed to help participants build a solid foundation of payments cybersecurity knowledge by learning how to identify vulnerabilities, implement effective security measures and mitigate threats.
• Operations – providing the skills needed to run participants’ businesses more efficiently and covering everything useful to know about Visa’s operational systems and processes, including managing authorizations, billing statements and new Visa rules.

Q2: Can you walk us briefly through Visa University’s current courses and programs?

VU offers training across six topics that matter to payments professionals including the payments landscape, portfolio management, fraud, dispute resolution, cybersecurity and operations.

Courses and programs are delivered virtually, in person and on demand and run from several hours to multiple weeks. These trainings are designed to provide both breadth and depth of knowledge, helping payments professionals accelerate their development and grow organizational success.

Additionally, we offer Visa clients the opportunity to learn anytime, anywhere through Digital Payments Library, our subscription-based streaming library.

Q3: The payments landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. How has Visa University managed its curriculum to respond to industry trends and changing client demands?

VU was created to help Visa clients become payments experts from the people who know payments best. As a world leader in digital payments, Visa is at the forefront of industry change with innovative payments solutions. Similarly, as a leader in payments training, VU is continuously innovating the curriculum and modalities we offer.

For example, Digital Payments Library (DPL), VU’s on-demand training resource, was launched in early 2023 to provide clients with an always-on steaming service that allows them to fit learning into their day.

DPL currently features nearly 450 videos and seven full-length courses. New DPL videos are added regularly and feature content on emerging topics that matter to payments professionals.

VU also offers innovative collaborations in the academic space including Digital Payments Catalyst, a six-week program developed and presented in partnership with Wharton Online.

VU also designs bespoke programs for CEMEA clients in partnership with world class learning institutions.

Q4: How do the courses offered by Visa University help to set up payments leaders for success in the industry?

VU offers training for all levels of payments experience including introductory, intermediate and advanced courses. This structure creates learning journeys clients can follow to develop the skills and expertise needed to grow in their role and contribute to their organization.

Programs such as Payments Management Lab, Payments Management Lab — Live and Payments Management Challenge offer an opportunity for payments professionals of all experience levels and roles to collaborate and learn in a fun and engaging environment while developing knowledge that can be applied immediately in their day-to-day roles.

For those who want to achieve a higher level of knowledge and recognition, VU offers a certification program in dispute resolution and will be introducing a payments cybersecurity certification in late 2023.

Q5: In offering courses on portfolio management, which aspects of this topic does Visa University focus on and how is the training delivered?

VU offers 16 portfolio management courses, covering topics including adapting to change, customer acquisition and optimizing the Early Months on Book. All these courses are available virtually and select courses are available as in-person training. There are also more than 90 portfolio management videos available through DPL. Additionally, we offer programs focused on portfolio management, including Payments Management Lab, a virtual 10-week program and Payments Management Lab — Live, a four-day, in-person program.

Visa University consistently delivers excellent experiences.

Visa clients have shared their positive experiences with receiving valuable insights from VU that helps them reach their career development goals and aligns with their business needs.

We have two asks of you: 1. Engage with your teams to ensure your organization is leveraging VU capabilities; 2. Let your Advisory point of contact know where we can further support capability building in your organization.

Learn more about all of Visa University’s offerings by visiting VisaUniversity.com or VisaOnline, following Visa University on LinkedIn and subscribing to their weekly newsletter. You can also contact Swapna Rege (Senior Director, Visa Consulting & Analytics) at srege@visa.com and Ashil Rowjee (Market Learning Consultant, Visa) at rowjeea@visa.com, directly to find out more.

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All brand names, logos and/or trademarks are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification purposes only, and do not necessarily imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa.

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Visa University: Setting the Standard in Upskilling Payments Professionals

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