Young Professionals Pursue Mainframe Careers IBM Australia says it has seen a surge of applications from young IT professionals actively chasing IT careers in the mainframe environment. In a direct rebuke to all the pundits who have declared the mainframe dead over the years, the trainees are part of a group of 50 currently enrolled in an IT degree program to produce IT professionals working in the IBM zSeries environment. (Jun. 2005 CIO)

IBM Plugs Big Iron to the College Crowd IBM isn't expecting a mass exodus of mainframe talent. But we do need to get some younger folks started to build those skills, particularly since it takes a few years for IT workers to embrace the complexity of the environment. Some students say the program is awakening a previously unknown interest in mainframe technology. (May 2005 ComputerWorld)

Professor blames limited training for high level of software failures Those who develop systems can often produce software that provides certain basic functionality, but they fail to understand or are completely unaware of topics such as the crucial importance of specification, the difficulties that arise in concurrent programs, the limitations of testing, the effects of rounding error or the lack of timing predictability in processors. Knowing the syntax of Java does not make someone a software engineer. (Oct. 2004 ComputerWeekly)

Mainframes ‘more gratifying than upgrading Word’ If you are interested in critical systems then mainframes are more gratifying than upgrading some pen-pusher’s version of Microsoft Word. IBM is strengtheng the zSeries community with more internal skills, a zSeries scholars program, and by expanding participation in the Linux and open source community. The mainframe is absolutely strategic for IBM. (Aug. 2004 ComputerWorld)

New York College To Open OSDL Linux Research Site Through Marist College, Linux developers will gain remote access to a mainframe system to run qualified projects and test Linux software. Enabling a community of users to develop and test Linux on the mainframe should help improve Linux as an enterprise operating system while building a pool of skilled developers for industry and education. (May 2004 LinuxInsider)

Why certifying IT workers won't help Things would not be so bad if we knew what software developers should know. By and large, we don't. Certainly it is helpful for them to know at least one programming language. By the same token, it is as well for engineers to be able to count. Where do we go after that? (May 2004 ZDNet)

Loyalty Points Even though the loyalty score of rank-and-file technology employees is one-third lower than the average, they are more motivated to work hard. Training and development is ultimately what drives employees in technology. Many incentives of the 1990s, such as stock options, actually made employees feel trapped. (Sep. 2003 CIO)

The Incredible Shrinking Legacy Workforce Enterprise IT organizations are threatened by the collision of three ominous trends: the continued reliance on mainframe systems, an aging Baby Boomer population, and the limited skills base of younger IT workers. If these factors aren't addressed within the next five to seven years, we'll all be facing an IT skills shortage that could prove devastating to businesses that depend on technology expertise. (Aug. 2003 Optimize)

Keep your staff happy and keep your profits Staff who received more than the average number of training days were more motivated, more productive - and more loyal to the company. It's a matter of showing people you are committed to them. Retraining long-serving staff with legacy expertise in new skills can provide a rich seam of largely loyal and previously overlooked workers. (Jun. 2003 ComputerWeekly)

Data centers offer career opportunities for consultants with rare skills AFCOM recently announced a new program to deliver training and educational resources to help IT professionals hone skills and help companies deal with the lack of mainframe skills in the marketplace. Retraining managers in mainframe skills gives them a different and higher-paying career path. (Jun. 2003 TechRepublic)

AFCOM eyes program to train IT workers for mainframe work Getting IT professionals, especially young ones, interested in learning mainframe work isn't easy. The program includes collaboration with IT vendors to improve data center management with technologies such as remote wireless control of data center operations. It's a capability that might make mainframe operations more attractive to younger IT professionals. (Mar. 2003 ComputerWorld)

IBM mainframe to study grid computing The University of Florida has bought a lower-end IBM z800 mainframe along with 32 Intel servers to investigate grid computing. It has also bought an Enterprise Storage Server Shark system with 3.36 terabytes of capacity. (Mar. 2003 ZDNet)

Selling the sysprog's role As time marches on the sysprogs of old start to retire or move on to other more sexy roles - the influx of new sysprogs is dwindling and eventually will suffer. I am trying to entice some of the IT graduates and trainees into the world that is systems programming. (Mar. 2003 bit.listserv.ibm-main)

AFCOM and Marist College Announce Data Center Skills Education Initiative Industry experts foresee an impending IT skills crisis that has the potential to impact organizations who continue to rely on mainframes as part of their enterprise IT infrastructure. It is increasingly difficult to find young mainframe-savvy professionals to replace the old guard. It's time to to try and turn this trend around. (Feb. 2003 biz ink)

Returns boost IT training spend More than 80 per cent of IT companies claim to have seen satisfactory return on investment for IT training, with half planning to increase their training spend over the next year. (Feb. 2003 VNU Net)

Climbing the Learning Curve When you provide feedback to go with practice you will manage the risk associated with climbing a steep learning curve. It may look expensive; but think about a team that delivered two years late on what had been sold as a one-year project. That team is still fixing major bugs and is on the verge of burnout. (Dec. 2002 StickyMinds)

Reality Bytes All CS students would do well to share the understanding that what happens in the real world of software development isn't always about writing a program, but rather about dealing with changing requirements, employee turnover and demanding customers. Then, we hope, they'll leave school realizing that coding is only part of this business we call software engineering. (Nov. 2002 Software Development Magazine)