It is true that "back in the good old days" companies would have internal training to teach programming skills. My first job after college and the military was with a bank as an application programmer. Back then they coded everything in IBM Assembler because it was more efficient than COBOL. Up until then I had coded COBOL, Fortran, and ALGOL (my college had a Burroughs B5500 for student work). I hadn't done anything in assembler so it was very new to me. The company had an excellent self-paced course to train in the basics of assembler. I picked up on it quickly. Besides that there were several people there who made great mentors in the topic. There was one in particular who is still a good friend of mine.
There is a problem today that companies complain about not having the skills available in areas like COBOL, but they are not willing to spend the money or time to train their employees in those skills. Tom Kelman Enterprise Capacity Planner Commerce Bank of Kansas City (816) 760-7632 > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:ibm-m...@bama.ua.edu] On > Behalf Of Hunkeler Peter (KIUP 4) > Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 1:24 AM > To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu > Subject: Re: COBOL - no longer being taught - is a problem > > This is not only a problem of universites not teaching > its students COBOL, PL/I, IBM Mainframes, etc. It is also > a home made problem of the companies requiring this > kind of skills. Many of them had their own IT school > with which they took care of educating employees in the > skills they need for that company. They also sent students > to classromm courses in matters not worth teaching > by themselves. At least in Switzerland, this has > vanished into thin air during the last decade or so. > And now intelligent management all over a sudden realizes > that they are heading into the problem of retiring > employees and complains that they can't find > new employees with the demanded skills. > > It is sure nice to have IT architects that look ahead > and preach JAVA, but neglecting that there are legacy > systems which for many companies are its heart, is > simply not in the interest of those companies. > > This leads back to the universities. Can you expect > someone to preach a matter they don't now abaout? > Rarely, probably. > > -- > Peter Hunkeler > CREDIT SUISSE AG > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO > Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ***************************************************************************** If you wish to communicate securely with Commerce Bank and its affiliates, you must log into your account under Online Services at http://www.commercebank.com or use the Commerce Bank Secure Email Message Center at https://securemail.commercebank.com NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any attached files are confidential. The information is exclusively for the use of the individual or entity intended as the recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, copying, printing, reviewing, retention, disclosure, distribution or forwarding of the message or any attached file is not authorized and is strictly prohibited. If you have received this electronic mail message in error, please advise the sender by reply electronic mail immediately and permanently delete the original transmission, any attachments and any copies of this message from your computer system. ***************************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
