To help encourage growth in the mainframe industry and improve access to skills, IBM and many other industry vendors are working with universities, mainframe employers, online learning platforms, training providers, and community organizations to offer additional learning opportunities to help clients support their mainframe platform with a vibrant technical community. As part of this initiative, over the past five months IBM and our IBM Z clients have been visiting universities and colleges in Ontario, educating students on potential careers in the mainframe industry, and introducing them to companies hiring for IBM Z roles.

Canadian Virtual IBM Z Career Fair from 12 – 3 pm ET on April 12th. Register here.

Earlier this month, IBM introduced the Mainframe Skills Council to provide a forum where global organizations can foster a skilled, diverse, sustainable workforce for the mainframe platform. In addition to IBM, the council includes organizations spanning IBM clients, IBM partners, academia, user groups, non-profits, and open communities that are collaborating to implement mainframe skills development solutions.

New research affirms industry efforts to increase mainframe skills

As today’s businesses adapt to economic shifts in the market and new advances in technology, skills are a key part of success for every organization. According to a 2022 IBM Transformation Index: State of Cloud survey, 56 percent of companies surveyed have embraced a hybrid cloud operating model. IBM Z, as a key part of many clients’ hybrid cloud environments, provides a resilient, and agile IT platform to help drive clients’ digital transformations. Mainframe skills will be particularly critical for the success of many businesses as they implement AI, modernize their applications, and focus on digital transformation. 

New research from the Futurum Group, 2024 Global Mainframe Skills Report: Insights from Industry and Educational Experts, commissioned by IBM, Broadcom, and 21CS shows continued demand in mainframe talent as well as progress in growing the mainframe workforce as the mainframe community works together to build skills.

The survey highlighted a generational gap in mainframe skilling with an influx of early career talent, while calling attention to the existing demand for experienced mainframe professionals with 79 percent of respondents recruiting for mid-career mainframe positions and 51 percent recruiting for entry-level positions. In fact, in 2023, 32 percent of mainframe employers responding to the global survey hired 11-20 mainframe related roles and 35 percent hired more than 20 mainframe roles. In addition, 91 percent of employer respondents said they are planning to hire talent for new mainframe positions in the next 1-2 years, investing in and growing their mainframe IT teams.

The survey results also underscored increased opportunities for mainframe job-seekers to learn and grow their skills regardless of where they are in their careers with 75 percent of responding university leaders indicating that their institution offers course curricula for students to learn mainframe skills and 83 percent of student respondents indicating they are learning mainframe skills through their university.

Companies are also taking advantage of the community resources available in the market to find, train and develop mainframe talent. Sixty percent of mainframe employers surveyed report that they rely on non-traditional skills resources as a mainframe hiring or recruitment strategy, such as working with industry vendors on bootcamp, training, or apprenticeship programs. And mainframe employers who invest resources in the platform indicated they have less trouble finding skills, with 71 percent of companies, who invest at least $10 million in their mainframe environment, surveyed saying they sufficiently or fully met their hiring goals for mainframe system administrator roles in 2023.

Anyone interested in learning more about opportunities can attend the Canadian Virtual IBM Z Career Fair from 12 – 3 pm ET on April 12^th. Register here: Ibm.biz/aprvirtualfair

People can also build their skills with IBM Z Xplore. This is a platform where, at no charge, learners can gain hands-on experiences through coding challenges and working with various technologies to develop valuable skills and earn industry recognized digital badges. There is no prior knowledge needed to get started. Content is continuously being developed and added to further learning experiences. Get started now and Learn about digital badges.