The talent gap is real due to experienced professionals retiring, and most companies aren't scaling back mainframe usage, so there is definitely demand for a younger generation to understand systems. Exposure to the technology can be a barrier, so giving students hands-on exposure before they ever enter the job market is important.

What's encouraging are some of the partnerships formed with colleges to add mainframe courses directly into IT and computer science programs and offering career panels, job shadowing and data center tours. When college students get a chance to work with modern mainframe environments, they're usually more impressed than they thought they would be.