The IBM Academic Initiative, System z
Building Skills for the Mainframe Community
In the 1990s, when client/server and PC-oriented computing
was the dominant and growing focus of most businesses, colleges and
universities started to move away from teaching large systems (mainframe)
topics as part of their curricula. As a result of that movement, students are
lacking education and experience in large systems thinking and enterprise
computing, despite the 40-year history and recent revitalization of the
mainframe. Educators need to hear from the mainframe community about the role
of the mainframe in your business and your expectations of the students you
hire.
The value the mainframe delivers is legendary and
compelling. We need to ensure we are building the next generation of mainframe
skills to help more companies and organizations leverage the superior security,
availability, scalability and other operational advantages of the mainframe. It
is important that we influence schools to teach mainframe technologies. By
preparing and educating students in large systems topics, we can help supply
the necessary skills and prepare a steady stream of mainframe-educated students
to enter the workforce.
The IBM Academic Initiative, System z program partners with
colleges and universities and provides them with educational resources to
enhance the IBM System z skilled resource base. The program also helps students
develop practical large systems thinking skills. The program relies on a number
of IBM volunteers known as University Ambassadors to help influence professors
to integrate mainframe and enterprise computing topics into school
curricula.
From IBM |