UNF adds fintech programs to meet worker training demand from Jacksonville-area businesses

The University of North Florida will offer both graduate and undergraduate programs in fintech starting this fall, the school said Tuesday.

University officials billed the debuts of the master’s degree in fintech through the Coggin College of Business and the undergraduate fintech concentration in the School of Computing as steps to build a talent pipeline connecting students to in-demand jobs.

“Fintech has rapidly become a key industry in Jacksonville and Florida,” Coggin Dean Richard Buttimer said in a release about the degree program. “The MS in finfech is another example of UNF’s ongoing commitment to developing the talent that will drive the economic growth of Jacksonville.”

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Financial technology is a headline-grabbing subsector of financial services, a field the JAXUSA Partnership says accounts for about 65,000 jobs locally.

FIS, Black Knight, Deutsche Bank, SS&C Technologies, SoFi and Dun & Bradstreet are among the businesses with significant fintech operations around Jacksonville.

UNF’s new programs “will provide crucial opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to gain the technical and finance-related knowledge needed to fuel the workforce and make Jacksonville a global leader in fintech,” said William Klostermeyer, dean of the College of Computing, Engineering and Construction.

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The new programs coincide with rising academic efforts to serve Jacksonville’s business and technical needs. Officials envisioning the University of Florida’s planned (but not finalized) graduate campus in Jacksonville have mentioned the city’s fintech businesses, while UF and city officials have separately discussed a potential role locally for the UF Semiconductor Institute.

Florida State College at Jacksonville also has technical certificate coursework in fintech for people who already have at least a two-year degree as well as courses that can also be applied to a four-year information systems technology degree.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: UNF adding fintech programs to match job needs in growing industry