U.K.-based multinational professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will bolster its employees’ blockchain knowledge through a dedicated program next year, Digiday reported Thursday, August 30.

Part of a coordinated push to enhance digital awareness, the company will put 1000 staff through its Digital Accelerators program, which will run for two years from January.

Participants will forego a portion of their regular workload and instead focus heavily on digital innovation including blockchain.

Sarah McEneaney, digital talent leader at PwC and head of Digital Accelerators, told Digiday that client demand and competition formed major motivations behind the scheme.

“It just seems table stakes at this point that people should have more technology skills. It’s needed for us to remain competitive and to be responsive for what our clients are also going through,” she said.

“...Our clients are looking for us to do things more digitally and control the cost of what we’re doing.”

The announcement comes the same week PwC released research which highlighted the hurdles to blockchain adoption becoming more mainstream.

Many corporate entities, it said, feared regulatory uncertainty and a paradoxical lack of trust in the technology.

“Blockchain by its very definition should engender trust. But in reality, companies confront trust issues at nearly every turn,” dedicated blockchain leader Steve Davies commented.

Worldwide, both private and state entities are fostering blockchain knowledge. As Cointelegraph reported, the South Korean government will sponsor a new installment of its youth training program next month in an attempt to match young talent with jobs in emerging sectors.