The Fillmore Group has, at least in our opinion, access to some of the best DB2 for z/OS consulting and staff augmentation talent in the world.  Need help?  Email me!

However, as we heard recently from two successful mainframe customers at a class in Baltimore, finding young IT professionals interested in mainframe-centric careers is really tough.  Add to this the challenges in the world of IBM training, and the convergence of the aging z technical teams with the lack of young, skilled talent, and this becomes another factor jeopardizing long-term prospects for the IBM mainframe.

IBM has been trying to address the problem by enabling colleges and universities around the world to use IBM curriculum and remote labs to teach mainframe technology courses.

I spoke recently with IBM’s Don Resnik, who runs the IBM Academic Initiative, and Don re-introduced me to the program and shared some terrific resources.  As it turns out, there are three schools on the East Coast offering a mainframe track:  Radford in Virginia, and Syracuse and Marist in NY.

This week many colleges are holding graduation ceremonies.  If your organization would like to invest in the future of the mainframe, I recommend you spend a few minutes reviewing the information in the Academic Initiative website as well as the website where many students have posted their resumes, and where you can post job openings, www.systemzjobs.com.

As the parent of a college student anxious about his post graduation job prospects, I encourage everyone working with the mainframe to consider hiring a recent grad.  It’s a win-win.