There have been plenty of discussion, task forces, studies on the impending IT workforce shortage by government, associations, economic development people. Here's something I hadn't seen, but should have expected.
InternetNews.com has a story called The Resurgence of Mainframes?. It starts out pretty much like you’d think: mainframe programmers are retiring, younger IT people prefer Windows, Unix or Linux. But IBM has a plan that seems to be getting some traction. Universities that join the IBM Academic Initiative zSeries program get "the free use of a z/OS mainframe system (Knowledge Center) for education and research. Professors and students get ID's on the system, allowing them to explore and learn on a real mainframe environment."
The goal is to assist students in developing practical mainframe skills that enable them to find good jobs quickly upon graduation and to help businesses replace retiring mainframe experts. IBM has pledged to work with schools to reach a target of 20,000 mainframe literate IT professionals in the market by 2010. To meet this goal, IBM hopes to double the number of schools involved by the end of 2005.
And covering the open source base, IBM’s Academic License program aims "to help train, educate and accelerate development skills around open standards based technologies." According to IBM, “professors will have access to more than 25 technologies including games and simulations to accelerate skills around IBM on demand offerings including open standards technologies, such as Java and Eclipse, tools to enable Grid computing and new technologies to help developers create applications that are accessible to the visually impaired.� There’s also an arrangement with Red Hat:
Working together, IBM and Red Hat will help institutions educate students and generate high-value job skills on Linux, as well as training on IBM software and servers. This relationship seeks to help spread the adoption of open standards around the world and will include the spectrum of higher education institutions, from large research universities to community colleges and vocational schools. Upon graduation, students will understand the relevance and power of open standards and business on demand. They will possess the necessary skills for employment, including mastery of Linux.
It sounds like a win for everyone. Schools get access to technology they wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise, students learn marketable skills, IBM ensures it has technicians for its products. So why is this giving me the creeps?
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