Jim Buck, a programmer analyst instructor at Gateway Technical College [2] in Wisconsin, works hard to attract students. He runs an innovative outreach program designed to lure them into learning about the System i and the world of midrange business computers. As part of that effort, he teaches concepts classes at a local high school.

He's active in the business community, too, working to create networking opportunities. His students, for example, volunteer to set up labs and serve as support teams at midrange computing conferences.

These endeavors helped Buck win an IBM innovation award in 2007. The honor and the resulting publicity have paid dividends, he says. "I see a lot of employers outside of Wisconsin looking for students because they have heard of Gateway."

Despite this, he says, it's difficult to get students into the program. Part of the reason is their lack of familiarity. Enrollees at the two-year college, which has three major campuses in Kenosha, Racine, and Elkhorn and an equivalent full-time enrollment of 5,000, have grown up in a Microsoft world. Software from the Washington-based company is on nearly all desktops. When youths begin writing programs, sometimes while they're still in elementary school, it's usually on a Microsoft platform with Microsoft tools.

Many students come to Gateway wanting to be web programmers, not knowing that System i boxes have a presence on the web. That's one reason Buck is working with high schools in an attempt to at least introduce potential incoming Gateway students to the world of information technology beyond Microsoft.

It's all part of the fight Buck wages against the idea that the System i is an obsolete platform. He estimates that up to half of the students in his classes learned about them through word-of-mouth despite his efforts to publicize what's available at Gateway in System i instruction.

Buck notes that IT teachers nationwide are having trouble recruiting students. Anecdotal evidence, such as comments posted online, indicates that the problem isn't confined to the U.S., he says.

Where have all the IT students gone? "Education runs two to three years behind what the market is," Buck says, explaining how the concept of supply and demand plays out in the educational arena. "There have to be jobs before people start signing up for classes."

Nate Viall, president and owner of the recruiting firm Nate Viall and Associates [3] of Des Moines, Iowa, agrees with that assessment. His company recruits for people with System i training in the Midwest, follows university enrollment in the same area, and tracks employment trends nationwide.

As Viall points out, students in their last year at a university or a two-year technical college can't realistically change degree plans. In the case of four-year programs, the same is true for students in their third year. It's only sophomores and freshmen, he says, who can switch their course of study. Thus, jobs have to be plentiful at the present time or there'll be fewer new graduates two or more years from now from four-year programs.

Viall reports that IT students graduating in the spring of 2007 had obtained jobs by the end of the summer, a fact that underclassman noticed. That, in turn, led to good news for IT programs at universities. "Enrollments this fall are up slightly," says Viall.

As further proof that enrollment is driven by the job market, Viall notes that the fall uptick comes after an extended and significant drop in IT enrollment in universities throughout the Midwest and a drop in entry-level jobs. At the same time, overall enrollment for business schools has gone up. Ironically, businesses need IT workers but can't always find them.

This situation may be about to change, however. Viall estimates that although the "birth rate" of people coming to the platform may be as low as a twentieth of what it was 10 years ago, baby boomers are steadily approaching retirement. Barring a recession, a disaster, or some other reason that the demand for System i skills declined significantly, the System i industry is going to need more trained workers, and enrollments could climb substantially as a result.

Summing up the situation, Viall says, "We're only probably two years or four years away at the outside when we're going to have all kinds of interesting issues involving employers competing for talent."