I'm going to approach this slightly differently. Apologies for being a bit 
off-topic.

If somebody wants to do some *beginner* type learning of COBOL, then it is 
possible to do so on a PC for free. There is OpenCOBOL which can be freely 
downloaded and used.
http://opencobol.org/
<quote>
OpenCOBOL is an open-source COBOL compiler. OpenCOBOL implements a substantial 
part of the COBOL 85 and COBOL 2002 standards, as well as many extensions of 
the existent COBOL compilers. 
OpenCOBOL translates COBOL into C and compiles the translated code using the 
native C compiler. You can build your COBOL programs on various platforms, 
including Unix/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. 

The compiler is licensed under GNU General Public License.
The run-time library is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License.
</quote>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCOBOL

As stated above, it does require a C compiler. Which is "no big deal" to this 
Linux user.

I have used the above compiler, at work, on my Linux desktop, to compile some 
simple programs. These programs were written my me on z/OS, and compiled on 
z/OS using IBM's Enterprise COBOL. Most of them compiled easily, once I removed 
the data in column 7-80 and then removed the trailing blanks. The blank remove 
may have been unnecessary. I have a small Perl program which does all this for 
me.

-- 
John McKown
Systems Engineer IV
IT

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]]
> On Behalf Of Martin, Larry D
> Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 7:06 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: z/os mount command
> 
> Here is a link to the IBM 'z/OS Basics' Web site:
> http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zos/basics/index.jsp
> 
> Larry
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]]
> On Behalf Of Bernd Oppolzer
> Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 1:51 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: z/os mount command
> 
> For example, if you have absolutely no idea what mainframe programming
> is all about, and you want to be a COBOL programmer in the near future,
> this video on youtube may give you a first impression:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv7ThVwb7m8
> 
> But depending on the skills you already have, this will look rather
> funny to you.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Bernd
> 
> 
> 
> Am 23.09.2012 19:42, schrieb Bernd Oppolzer:
> > Am 23.09.2012 19:33, schrieb Steve Comstock:
> >> On 9/23/2012 11:07 AM, James A Huckert wrote:
> >>> What is the MVS Basic course?
> >>> I just got into z/OS programming from a Production control position
> >>> and I am trying to get a grasp of all the system jargon and such.
> My
> >>> employer won't allow any training so I am on my own. Anyone got any
> >>> good ideas on websites / books I can learn from? I have found some
> >>> stuff but nothing relevant to todays mainframes.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks
> >>>
> >>> Tim
> >>
> >> So your employer is IBM and your employer won't allow any training.
> >>
> >> Man that kind of thing just drives me nuts! IBM should be in the
> >> forefront of providing training to their employees (and they used
> to,
> >> many years ago) but they are being driven by the bean counters and
> >> not real managers.
> >
> 
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