IBM program targets mainframe skills shortage

While IBM has continued to evolve the mainframe to stay relevant in an AI and cloud computing world, IT organizations have continued to struggle with a shrinking pool of skilled workers who know how to keep Big Iron platforms humming.

Over the years, IBM and its business partners have addressed the mainframe workforce shortage with education and training programs targeted at areas such as COBOL programming. IBM’s new efforts are an extension of those packages.

One new effort is the Mainframe Skills Council, which is aimed at developing a skilled, diverse, sustainable workforce for the mainframe platform, according to IBM. The Council features IBM clients and partners, academia, user groups, non-profits, and open communities working together to offer and implement mainframe skills development packages. Initial Council members include Academic Mainframe Consortium, Albany State University, Broadcom, DNB Bank, HOGENT, M&T Bank, Northern Illinois University, SHARE, and 21CS.

IBM says the council will offer working groups focused on career awareness, competency frameworks, learning paths, and professional development, with goals that include:

• Sharing ideas and practices to enhance professional development.
• Sharing education, training tools, and related resources to optimize overall mainframe career experience for professionals and leaders.
• Increasing mainframe employer adoption of proven skill initiatives and practices.

A second new effort is the IBM Z Mainframe Skills Depot. Potential professionals can choose from specialized mainframe-training tracks tailored to roles such as mainframe system administrator, mainframe application developer, and modernization architect. More than a thousand of hours of self-paced, no-charge, hands-on learning is available, and participants can earn industry-recognized digital badges, IBM stated.

Existing mainframe skills initiatives from IBM include the IBM Z Global Skills Accelerator and Apprenticeship program, which has enabled 83 global employers to skill up more than 440 mainframe system administrators and application developers across 13 countries. In addition, the IBM Z Student Ambassador program provides leadership opportunities for students and supports mainframe student clubs on campuses at more than 95 universities worldwide, according to IBM.