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1. availability of necessary infrastructure (e.g. access to an i5/OS system either locally or remotely) and any i5-related software students need to use (especially on their PCs, for IDEs, etc.)
2. availability of full-time i5/OS administrators or programmers from industry who are willing and able to serve as "adjunct faculty" to teach part-time courses in a local community college or university, and/or to act as a part-time administrators for any i5 systems on campus -OR- availability of full-time faculty with the necessary knowledge to do the same.
3. availability of textbooks, preferably with "instructor's guide" and lesson plans, suggested homework exercises, sample quizzes and exams, etc., so that anyone trying to teach the course for the first time can get "up and running" quickly. (This was a major inhibitor over the past 5 years at several schools I was involved with.) Many college professors will not even attempt to teach a new course without this kind of support. (Oh, by the way, Microsoft does an EXCELLENT JOB in providing all of these kinds of materials to colleges, for their recommended courses, at very low cost.)
4. students willing to enroll in such courses. Without enough students, most colleges will be forced to CANCEL those courses, as they cannot afford to run them "at a loss" (or at least "break even" with regard to paying adjunct faculty, etc.) Many students are not willing to take any courses in a curriculum for "some platform they never heard of" -- especially if they have little or no faith that there will be any jobs available upon the completion of such coursework. This is a big "CATCH-22" ... I know of several community colleges that listed several AS/400 related courses in their catalog, but NO ONE EVER SIGNED-UP for those courses. There needs to be some kind of advertising-marketing in the local community to attract student interest, such as having potential employers (companies that use i5) come on campus and give a lecture to the students in the "introduction to computers" courses to explain that there are jobs in the local market for people with i5 skills. This requires some cooperation and assistance from the i5 community -- most colleges generally cannot or will not be able do this adequately by themselves (there are of course some rare exceptions who do a very good job of this "promotional" work.)
CALL TO ACTIONIf you want to see System i education offered in your area, GET INVOLVED ... Volunteer to serve on a local college's CIS Advisory Board (or whatever they call it), so you can have input into their curriculum, etc. -- volunteer to help to "spread the word" ... Employers who use System i in the local community could pay for their employees to sign-up for and take courses (evening or week-ends) at the local colleges, in these courses ... For example, how many RPG programmers would like to learn Java for iSeries? etc. It is not easy -- it requres a commitment of your time, effort, etc.; it can take a year or more to "get the ball rolling" -- perhaps you may even need to volunteer to teach one or two courses the first time around.
If we don't take any action, we will continue to get the same results we are seeing now -- very few colleges are currently offering ANY courses related to IBM System i, p or z. (Think globally, act locally.)
Sincerely, Mark S. Waterbury
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