IBM will court SA students

By Siyabonga Africa for IBM

Johannesburg, 23 Oct 2008

The IBM Academic Initiative is set to be launched in SA early next year.

Richard Cairns, IBM's mainframe systems platform manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, says the company is already looking at several universities in SA to participate in the global programme.

So far, more than 500 000 students have participated in the mainframe education that is taught in 500 schools across the world.

“The IBM Academic Initiative provides faculty around the world with a broad range of resources and support to help educate students in the open standards skills they need to compete in the fast-paced, and ever-changing IT workplace,” says Carol Stafford, IBM's worldwide VP for enterprise systems.

Cairns adds the students will be trained on IBM's z system, with source material being freely available on the Internet for member schools. The IBM Academic Initiative provides tutorials and course materials on key software and hardware technologies.

Students to compete too

Stafford says the academic initiative also incorporates the Student Mainframe Contest, which sees more than 8 000 students taking part globally and regionally in a mainframe development competition where the prizes include Sony PSPs and Apple iPods.

IBM states today's new mainframes are growing in popularity in the IT industry and require a new generation of mainframe experts. The contest is geared towards training skills and talent in mainframe development, and is designed for students with little or no mainframe experience.

Cairns says IBM hopes to attract top South African talent. He could not provide details as to which schools would participate, but said IBM was already in talks with several universities.