The partners, which include the California Department of Industrial Relations, the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards and American River College, will offer the zSystems Apprenticeship Pilot Program, a tech apprenticeship aimed at retraining state employees in non-IT classifications to work in three key areas of mainframe where workers are retiring and not being replaced. The partners held a kickoff Thursday, during National Apprenticeship Week, at the California Department of Technology Training & Education Center in Rancho Cordova. Among the takeaways:
• The program will utilize IBM’s “gold standard apprenticeship framework,” CDT said on its Tech Blog, to train state staff in Mainframe System Administration (MSA), Software Engineering (SWE) and Application Development (AD) areas of study. Partnering with IBM was a logical choice because “IBM is really the initial start of mainframe,” Brenda Bridges Cruz, deputy director, Office of Professional Development at CDT, told Techwire. The company’s apprenticeship framework is also dually accredited by the U.S. Department of Labor and the state.
• The application period hasn’t been set, but will likely open before year’s end, as the first coursework is slated for the spring semester at American River College (ARC). CDT, IBM and ARC are working with other sponsors on the program’s Joint Apprenticeship Committee to develop the curriculum. The initial cohort of apprentices will be 25. Non-IT state staff accepted into the program will enter a training and development assignment in an IT associate classification, Bridges Cruz said. Their coursework will enable them to meet the minimum qualifications (MQs) to apply for a state IT position.
“They’re not guaranteed a job in IT, but once they complete this program, they will be able to meet the MQs to then apply for IT associate classifications across the state in vacant areas,” Bridges Cruz said.
“This program will offer those new to the workforce, as well as mid-career workers, an opportunity to acquire skills for in-demand public technology jobs as we move toward one digital government,” state Chief Information Officer and CDT Director Amy Tong said in a statement.
• The need is considerable; program sponsor the State Employees International Union 1000 estimates an 18.6 percent vacancy rate in state civil service IT positions, CDT said on its blog. That’s partly due to ongoing retirements and competition with the private sector, Bridges Cruz said – but “then we’re seeing the incoming generations just learning other systems and languages.”
• The advent of newer technologies aside, state mainframes remain “alive and well,” she said, pointing out the city of Los Angeles announced in March it would move off its own mainframe and contract with CDT instead, moving its operations to the State Data Center in Sacramento. Agency sponsors in the first zSystems cohort include CDD, the Employment Development Department and the California Department of Motor Vehicles — all of which use mainframe.
“But again we’re open and hopeful that other departments will be interested and participate in this as well. CDT wants to partner with any other state or public entity interested in participating in this program,” Bridges Cruz said.
