IBM announced that 1,067 schools worldwide have signed on to its System z educational program, teaching courses and offering labs in IBM's mainframe technology. The IBM System z Academic Initiative, which now spans 66 countries, enables schools either to use their own mainframe resources or access them at no cost from IBM using innovative cloud computing technologies. Using the System z mainframe, professors in the program are exposing students to the enterprise computing environments that are solving some of the world's most complex and demanding computing challenges.
The program also provides remote access to non-IBM software that runs on the mainframe, enabling professors to demonstrate more software applications for System z. IBM's cloud delivery model gives schools anytime anywhere access to mainframe resources. Additionally, schools no longer need to maintain enterprise systems environments on campus to expose students to commercial systems like the IBM mainframe.
To help connect employers to students and professionals with mainframe skills, earlier this year IBM announced SystemzJobs.com. The job board currently has more than 2,000 users and postings for approximately 1,500 mainframe job openings, more than half of which are in the United States.
In a related development, Northwestern University and IBM announced they are collaborating on new business and technology curricula to help students gain the latest skills in business analytics. The new courses of study, Masters of Science degree programs with analytics concentrations in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Continuing Studies, will better prepare students, and current professionals, who are seeking new analytics skills for today's competitive job market.
For more information about IBM's System z Academic Initiative, visit http://ibm.com/university/systemz.
For details on the 2011 Master the Mainframe Contest, visit www.ibm.com/university/contest.
Visit the System z job board at http://systemzjobs.com.
To learn more about the analytics curricula at Northwestern University, visit www.predictiveanalytics.northwestern.edu and www.analytics.northwestern.edu.
For more information on IBM's University Programs, visit www.ibm.com/press/university.