Mainframe Skills Council

Fostering a diverse global community to build and support mainframe talent

Mission

The Mainframe Skills Council brings together global organizations spanning clients, partners, academia, user groups, non-profits, open communities, and IBM to share practices, co-create, and progress ideas to foster a skilled, diverse, sustainable workforce for the mainframe platform

The council encourages insights, collaboration, and solutions to inspire, connect, train, and grow talent

The community collaborates to implement solutions either through council meetings, working groups or within member organizations to be shared with the council

• Showcase a vibrant mainframe talent pool

• Align on common industry competency frameworks

• Share ideas and practices to enhance talent development

• Share education, training tools, and related resources to optimize overall mainframe career experience for professionals and leaders

• Increase mainframe employer adoption of proven skill initiatives and practices

Council Members

Press Release

March 6, 2024

IBM Launches Mainframe Skills Council with SHARE and Other Key Organizations to Support New Generations of Mainframe Talent

IBM introduced the Mainframe Skills Council during this week's SHARE conference in Orlando, to provide a forum where global organizations will 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 will collaborate to implement mainframe skills development solutions. Initial members include Academic Mainframe Consortium, Albany State University, Broadcom, DNB Bank, HOGENT, M&T Bank, Northern Illinois University, Rocket Software, SHARE, and 21CS.

Member Quotes

"We are enthusiastic about the idea of being an inaugural member of the Mainframe Skills Council and look forward to a lively and fruitful exchange of information. To be able to operate mainframes efficiently and securely in the future, well-trained personnel are the most important prerequisite. The non-profit Academic Mainframe Consortium supports universities and other academic institutions with infrastructure, know-how, and lecturers."
Wolfram Greis, President Academic Mainframe Consortium, Germany

"The University System of Georgia (USG), with Albany State University as a leading institution, has partnered with IBM to offer students COBOL and other Mainframe skills to drive new talent. We at ASU aim to foster diverse talent by providing opportunities for students to obtain certifications to achieve dreams of becoming Mainframers."
Dr. Robert Owor, Executive Director of Center of Innovation and Emerging Technologies/Professor of Computer Science, Albany State University

"As organizations continue to seek avenues to attract and develop the next generation of mainframe experts, the introduction of the Mainframe Skills Council is a pivotal step forward in making mainframe education and talent programs more accessible. This initiative is positioned to ignite future advancements and ongoing innovation with the platform."
Lauren Valenti, Director, Mainframe Education and Customer Engagement, Broadcom Mainframe Software

"I am honored to have the opportunity to take part in the Mainframe Skills Council on behalf of DNB. This is a unique opportunity for us to share experiences, influence and get tips on how to inspire job seekers and students to explore the mainframe. We see that the platform has a major challenge as many of our talented employees and partners are approaching retirement age."
Janette Skoga, Mainframe Infrastructure Architect, DNB

"The Mainframe Skills Council is a fantastic new initiative and yet another piece of the jigsaw as our industry comes together to build new capacity and capability around its most important resource, our people. The council dovetails brilliantly with the GSE UK collaborative approach of 'give and take' knowledge sharing that extends across working group meetings, conference sessions, engaging with the student community as well as its NexGen activities."
Mark Wilson, GSE UK Region Manager and Conference Manager

"The establishment of Mainframe Skills Council will be hailed as a pivotal moment, reshaping the landscape of the mainframe education and cultivating a vibrant ecosystem of learning and advancement. Mainframe in higher education, an international university curriculum with integrated work-based learning opportunities becomes the vibrant thread that connects classroom knowledge to real-world experience."
Leendert Blondeel, Lecturer Mainframe Technologies, HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts

"We had a business challenge of a tenured mainframe workforce. We partnered with IBM and Franklin Apprenticeships to develop a mainframe skills program at M&T. By about six months into the program, our apprentices were coding on COBOL and installing new products on the IBM Z platform."
Gary Fusco, Engineering Director, M&T Bank

"Northern Illinois University's Department of Computer Science is proud to be a founding member of the Mainframe Skills Council. In addition to educational and research opportunities in leading edge Computer and Data Science, NIU's Department of Computer Science continues its 42-year history as a leader in mainframe education."
Geoffrey Decker, Instructor, Northern Illinois University

"The Mainframe Skills Council is critical to ensuring there is an active and engaged pool of mainframe talent for years to come. At Rocket Software, we have decades of experience in core systems and helping our customers modernize without disruption, and we look forward to joining the Council to help further close the skills gap and foster the next generation of talent."
Phil Buckellew, President, Infrastructure Modernization Business Unit, Rocket Software

"For nearly 70 years, SHARE has led the industry as the first enterprise IT user group dedicated to providing education and networking opportunities designed to be a catalyst to help advance our members' careers. We are proud to partner with IBM and the others as a founding member of the Mainframe Skills Council, as we continue to seek new and innovative ways to bring additional resources as well as value to our membership while driving the industry forward."
Scott Fagen, President, SHARE Association

"As a company committed to building a diverse workforce to support the mainframe platform, 21CS is proud to be a founding member of the Mainframe Skills Council. The Mainframe Skills Council will help attract and grow the next generation of talented professionals and 21CS looks forward to being an active member participant."
Nicholas Pachnos, CEO, 21CS

"IBM is well-positioned to address today’s technology skills challenges, something that every organization is grappling with as new innovation is unveiled. The mainframe community has been working to close the mainframe generational skills gap and we’ve seen substantial progress. The Mainframe Skills Council represents an exciting opportunity to build on these advancements and ignite the community to share experiences and create mainframe talent solutions that can grow with the platform."
Meredith Stowell, Vice President, IBM Z Ecosystem, IBM

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