Re: Getting Young People into IBM i

Hello:
The site is in progress of being updated.  Instead of being called IBM Academic Initiative it is now called PSA - Power Systems Academy.   Gina King at COMMON in Colorado shared the IBM commitment to making sure schools have the IBM support needed and there are IBM i trained students available for organizations seeking the next generation of IBM i resource.
Yesterday, we had a student meet and greet sponsored by CEF - COMMON Education Foundation.  I modeled it around an onsite event at our local Michigan technical conference MITEC  http://www.gomitec.com. ;  We have been holding the student meet and greets for several years.  In January I tried it out as a virtual event and it was a big hit.  Yesterdays event was sponsored with CEF with plans to have it a regularly scheduled activity.  We held it yesterday and as of this morning already there were 3 of the around 30 students participating that received job offers.  
There are still a lot of schools with IBM i curriculum including Gateway Technical College with 62+++ IBM i students in varying degrees of progress, Western Technical College has 22 IBM i students now, MCC - Muskegon Community College in Michigan has over a dozen students looking for IBM i jobs or just recently accepting jobs, PA Technical College has a good sized group of IT students seeking IBM i positions,.........................

COMMON Navigate this fall in Virginia Beach will have a lot of students onstie at the event.  Through CEF we've had over 30 students attend the fall event.  CEF also fosters and encourages people wanting to change careers and switch to an IT career.
I speak and write on the topic often and do want to see the word spread there are options.   If you don't readily find a student with IBM i curriculum look for a student with the base to work with.  If a student is studying IT and has the willingness, desire and aptitude you have a great base to work with.  With resources like COMMON Bootcamps, Jim Buck's Impower RPG and SQL classes, COMMON onsite events and other resources, N2i with internal mentoring you can find the next generation of IBM i resource.   Plan ahead, don't wait until the date is around the corner.  Bring a student in while those retiring have time to transition the technical and business knowledge specific to your organization.
There are definitely wonderful options to find young people on IBM i. 
Regards,Laura
Laura Ubelhor

President


Consultech Services, Inc.

Office: (248) 628-6800 

ubelhor@xxxxxxxxxxxxx | www.consultechservicesinc.com


On Wednesday, May 10, 2023 at 03:48:26 PM EDT, Jack Woehr via MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, May 10, 2023 at 1:46 PM <dr2@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jack,

I couldn't find anything on your links that was iSeries centric.  They
were all AI, AIX, etc...  Please be specific.

https://www.ibm.com/university/power/ibmi/