Give the Kids a Chance

In last week’s blog entry, we talked about a program designed to interest high school kids in careers in programming. Once that interest is sparked, many schools are part of the IBM Academic Initiative that offers training on System i and programming. The Academic Initiative offers schools support, course materials as well as access to hardware and software. Many of the schools also get support from one or more local companies or Business Partners who use the System i platform.

Some of the schools are struggling to keep their System i programs going. In many cases, the major problem they face is one of a lack of placement options for their graduates. This seems strange to us, because in our travels we often hear about a lack of System i and/or RPG programming staff. So if RPG programmers are in short supply, why can’t the schools place their graduates?

In many cases, it’s because the companies that have open positions insist on considering only experienced people. So the kids leave school with their training and their certificates and have nowhere to go to utilize and grow those skills.

Of course, if you’ve lost a very senior-level person in the shop and are looking to replace him/her, you think first of filling the position with someone with similar skills and experience. But we’d like to encourage all of the shops out there with current openings to consider giving recent graduates a chance to prove themselves. Of course they’ll need some additional guidance but there are significant advantages. You may be surprised at how your business can benefit from the fresh new approach to solving technical and business problems that comes from the newbies. The schools often teach additional skills that your experienced RPG developers may not have (e.g., Web programming, PHP or Java). If you don’t feel ready to jump straight into hiring a recent graduate, you might want to consider taking on some System i students as interns even before they graduate. It will let them gain a little of that valuable experience and give you a chance to find the more promising students that you may want to hire after they graduate.

How do you find these students or graduates? Take a look at the IBM Academic Initiative for System i Web page and click on the “Participating Schools” tab to locate a school near you. The contact name listed would be a great place to start.

What if no schools near you are listed? This may be a great opportunity to work with a local university, community college or technical school to begin a System i curriculum in your area. Contact your local user group if you have one, or some other companies whose businesses run on the System i platform and approach a local school about how important these skills are to your businesses. Contact the folks at the IBM Academic Initiative for System i for information on the program and support opportunities available. It’s not even necessary for the school to install its own System i server to run the curriculum because IBM offers a remote system that schools can share for that purpose.

We need more young people in our System i community. Once they see what it’s like they become as enthusiastic as we “experienced” folks are about it. We received a request recently from someone who has been doing PHP programming and wanted to know how to get started learning RPG and the System i platform. He knows a good thing when he sees it and is keen to learn more about developing business applications on the platform.

Some lucky company will get a valuable new resource when they hire this person. But that company will need to be one that’s willing to take on someone who doesn’t have years of experience in RPG or a specific ERP application or EDI–but who does have great aptitude and attitude.

In many ways the future of the System i platform is in our own hands and it’s time to give some new blood a chance!

Comments

[Bruce Guetzkow]

Susan & Jon:

Bravo! Thank you for getting this message out. Not only is this important for the folks trying to get into this field, but for companies using System i. These newbies may not know all of the ins and outs of the cycle, or recognize REDPE or other cryptic operation codes, but anyone with knowledge of RPG, a manual and a mentor can work that out. We need the new skills that these folks bring to the table...and their fresh approach.

I'm on the Advisory Committee for the Programmer/Analyst track at Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, WI, and they have been turning out quality students, most of whom have been finding employment. In fact I've spoken with some of the employers and they are not only happy with their new hires, they want more!

The company I work for can not support a second programmer, but I've done the next best thing: I've brought in students as interns the last 2 summers. This gives me an extra pair of hands to do some tasks, and it give them a little experience at a "real" job.

I encourage all of your readers to seriously consider these new graduates for full-time positions or, at the very least, intern positions. You may find yourself learning something yourself!

Thanks for promoting this valuable opportunity to keep the System i platform viable for decades to come.

[Trevor]

Jon, Susan,

I also discovered something interesting recently about the academic process and System i.

Universities and colleges are mostly way behind on the computing timeline. We were talking with a NY university, and they were unable to change their current curriculum. They were also finding it difficult to add new curriculum in the next semester and even the next year. The best they could guarantee was the year after next. Add to that the required ~marketing~ effort to let the students know about the new classes, and sell them on why they should take System i classes (when it appeared there were no jobs out there), and the timelines were exaggerated further.

And then, these particular academics had not heard of RPG "for years". They, personally, were not easily convinced there was a market out there to which they could target RPG graduates. Which means your point about companies hiring graduates, becomes more and more important if we want universities to teach System i and RPG.

The "compromise" I heard from them was that they might be able to add System i operations classes to their curriculum much faster. Maybe the days where operators became CL programmers became RPG programmers needs to be revisited?

Trevor

[Susan Gantner]

Bruce -

Thanks for sharing your experiences with students and graduates of the Academic Initiative program at Gateway. I've visited Gateway and I know they have a strong System i program. That's probably in large part due to partnerships with companies like yours and the enthusiastic System i faculty members.

See folks? It works. Bruce and his company have seen the value of giving the kids a chance.

[Linda Grigoleit]

As the program manager for the System i Academic Initiative, I can wholeheartedly echo Jon and Susan's comments. As they pointed out in "Nurturing the Next Generation of Developers", student enrollment in all IT related programs has significantly declined over the last several years, for a number of reasons. As a result many schools are combining programs and eliminating those with fewer enrollees. When we can demonstrate and qualify that there are jobs for their students with System i skills, colleges and universities are willing to work with us. But we need to "put our money where our mouth is" and provide internships and jobs for these students and entry-level graduates. If grads can't find jobs, the System i courses and programs will fade away.

To find out more about our program and to get involved with a college or university, contact us at academicinitiative@us.ibm.com.