+1 Ditto for application programmers IMHO, though the certification tests would be different.
There was a time In my younger days that I was against trade unions in general and in particular against "professional" unions, but my views have changed dramatically since then. Life is a hard teacher. Peter >From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of >Brian Westerman >Sent: Saturday, February 7, 2026 4:54 PM >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: Trade Union? > >This is just my 2 cents worth so hopefully no one will be outraged by my >comments, but >why would anyone be excluded from certification? I know electricians that >have been >doing electrical work that I would not trust to change a light bulb. But the >ones that have >been certified tend to be a completely different (and better) class. I have >known, and >still do, many "Systems Programmers" that have over 25 years of "experience" >that don't >have what I would consider basic systems programming skills. In a gathering >of systems >programmers, if you ask how many know assembler well enough to write an exit, >not >many hands will go up. If you ask how many have actually installed z/OS with >z/OSMF >or Serverpac, you would likely get the same result. You might ask if it is >fair to be >excluded just because you don't yet know assembler or have had the "chance" to >install >z/OS but if you want to have a certification, then you have to establish the >minimum >requirements and guarantee that everyone who obtains that certification meets >them. > >If you establish a standard that you could create a certification for, then >allowing those >that should easily be able to pass the certification out of even taking the >"test" is silly. >It would cheapen the meaning of being "certified". There should be >requirements to >maintain the certification as well. Just because you learned how to do >something 27 >years ago doesn't mean you can do it now, nor that you can do it well enough >to >demand a premium price to be paid to perform that work. > >Brian > >>On Fri, 6 Feb 2026 14:45:19 -0600, Steve Beaver <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>How many of the US Consultants would be open to creating at trade union >> >>With the specific proviso that everyone with over 25 years' experience >> >>Would be excluded from getting certified but could go get certifications >> >>Steve Beaver -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
