IBM Academic Initiative
System z program

The System z offering of the IBM Academic Initiative provides colleges and universities with educational resources to enhance the IBM System z skilled resource base and help students develop practical skills that enable them to find good jobs quickly upon graduation.

You can view and download the Teaching Enterprise Systems to a New Generation brochure to learn about IBM Academic Initiative System z resources and program goals.

The System z program provides significant benefits to everyone who participates.

For Educators:

• Stronger relationship with businesses
• A place where your students can post their resumes on the IBM Student Opportunity System database
• Access to industry technology experts
• Faculty workshops
• Comprehensive enterprise systems curriculum
• Access to IBM System z environment

For Students:

• IBM Academic Initiative Student Portal
• IBM Student Opportunity System database - Post your talents in this resume database
• IBM System z Entry Level for z/OS System Programmer Mastery Test - Become an IBM System z master
• Participate in the Master the Mainframe contest

For Clients and Business Partners:

• Access to qualified mainframe talent
• Ability to search resumes on the IBM Student Opportunity System database using step-by-step instructions.
• Strengthened collaboration with academia
• Development of targeted work-study programs

Educators, here is a four-step process to help you get started with enterprise systems:

Become a member of the Academic Initiative program.

• Receive information about program updates.
• List your school's name on the System z Academic Initiative Web site.

Download and review our foundational course, Introduction to the Mainframe: z/OS Basics.

• Provides background, knowledge, and skills necessary to begin using the basic facilities of a mainframe system in a semester course.
• Acts as a foundation for other courses and resources that are available on our Web site.

Request mainframe access.

• Explore, learn and perform course lab exercises in a real mainframe environment by taking advantage of the no-charge access to an IBM System z mainframe system.
• Send an email to zskills@us.ibm.com specifying which courses you are interested in (for example, z/OS Basics) and the number of educator and student IDs you would like to have created.

Attend a faculty seminar or workshop.

• Participate in educational offerings designed to help faculty better understand the topics.
• Attend the Introduction to the Mainframe: z/OS Basics seminar if you are getting started with the z/OS Basics course.

The IBM Academic Initiative for System z is hosting a hands-on mainframe contest for university students! You can find more information on our contest home page:

	Master the Mainframe Contest
	Students Compete to Master the Mainframe