> What's the good and bad news about today's mainframe education? I think the good parts are that there is more of it occurring. The negative side is that there continues to be a great deal of confusion (most of it generated by IBM) that mainframe = z/OS. Much, if not all, of the "advances" in training have covered exclusively z/OS education, not System z education.
That may change soon, but I can't say the state of real System z education has improved much at all. > What's missing? z/VM education Linux on z TPF VSE Large systems engineering Batch processing education (this seems to have completely disappeared) > What works? Classroom instruction? Online training? Self-study courses? > Books? User groups? Combinations of the above. Online only is of limited value, especially if you don't have a lab system you can break. > Do employers pay for it? Is it a necessity or a golden perk? Is it safe > in the budget or a first thing to get whacked? If what I needed existed, I'd pay for it. User groups are generally as effective, especially if well-organized. > What's happening in local mainframe user groups? Well, Hillgang does pretty well.
