Technology

Big tech problem as mainframes outlast workforce

Teaching mainframe skills is out of vogue at many universities, and some companies are growing concerned.

Federal News Network Staff

August 4, 2010 1:45 pm

< a min read

When Giorgos Tsapepas started as an intern at IBM in 2002, he had never used a mainframe. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the university he attended in upstate New York, there was no instruction in handling the powerful machines that tackle complicated computing tasks for such industries as finance and health care. Now a mainframe expert, Tsapepas had to learn his specialty on the job. Teaching mainframe skills is out of vogue at many universities with the advent of newer approaches to solving the biggest computing challenges. At the same time, many of the engineers capable of tinkering with the refrigerator-sized machines are nearing retirement. The average age of mainframe workers is 55 to 60, and Bloomberg reports that companies are now facing new challenges as these workers retire.

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