Gateway Technical College: Ensuring a future for IBM i

Gateway Technical College in WI is one of the few colleges in the United States to offer classes on the IBM i. Jim Buck, President of WMCPA and IBM i Programming Instructor, sees a future for the IBM i through the youth of today. He noted that they have a full program on multi-platforms, but many of the students like to focus on the IBM i. For the past 12 years they have been placing students in the marketplace in organizations looking for RPG, PHP, and MySQL programmers. 

End users looking for young IBM talent: contact Jim Buck, President, WMCPA, and IBM i  Programming Instructor, Gateway Technical College
www.linkedin.com/pub/jim-buck/5/506/3bb

Additionally, the classes focus on real world experience, for example, writing code for flight reservation systems. +Michael Seday spoke to past and current students during the WMCPA conference last week, and they collectively noted that although Mr. Buck makes them work hard, in the end they are ready to take on the challenges and opportunities to gain real world experience in the workplace. 

If you are looking pass the IBM i Administration Certification Exam and are ready to begin your IBM i RPG schooling, be sure to touch base with Jim Buck and Gateway Technical College.

“Gateway prepared me well for my job – I haven’t been faced with anything yet that I am unable to do,” says Ajay.“I really do think this job is recession proof. Business must have computers to work, and they depend on programmers to work every day.

Part of that preparation was hands-on training in the IBM-i power system, using IBM-i operating systems – training that is offered at few colleges in the state. “I’m glad that the instructors at Gateway got me into IBM-i, it was the first time I’d heard about it,” says Ajay. It’s a great environment to work in, and there’s a lot of job security that goes along with it. There are few colleges teaching it, but there are a lot of companies that use it – and there are a lot of professionals over the age of 50 who are eyeing retirement.” - Ajay Gomez, former Gateway Technical College Student

L to R: Chandra Krieg (student), Jim Buck, Michelle Kincaid (student)