Cumbernauld College and Ayr College in Scotland have joined the IBM Power Systems Academic Initiative and are offering courses on the i.

Over 1000 i-qualified graduates have been produced by the programme in Europe so far, according to Big Blue. Cumbernauld College near Glasgow is offering both operator and administrator courses as well as planning a post-graduate course next year in both i and AIX skills.

The two further education colleges' involvement comes after the Scottish Qualifications Authority first sanctioned System i certification as an academic qualification in its own right in 2007. In England, Barnfield College in Bedfordshire and Suffolk New College are among nine institutions now listed as teaching i skills on IBM's Academic Initiative website.

The Academic Initiative seeks to cater for local employers' needs for new recruits to maintain their System i environments. Participating colleges seek to match students to jobs on graduation. But is it easy to attract them to a niche specialism that could be regarded as slightly arcane?

"To be honest, that hasn’t been a problem that I’ve encountered in attracting new students to the i platform," says Cally Beck, IBM's UK-based Power Systems Academic Initiative programme manager. "They know that there are jobs out there to be had. And with the challenges that everybody has faced this year, the fact that there are still jobs out there can only be good for students."

With i and p convergence, Beck's remit has widened to disseminating AIX skills. Universities in Liverpool and Manchester are apparently interested in teaching AIX modules in their computer science curriculums. The transition to AIX is easier as students are already familiar with Unix in the form of Linux.

"We’re seeing more and more faculties for computer science being interested in AIX whereas the i OS modules have always been predominantly taken up by colleges rather than universities," says Beck. "That’s largely because of the types of roles that our i OS customers look for in terms of entry-level jobs – operators, technicians, administrators – whereas the universities are producing the graduates – bachelors and masters – who’ve studied on the computer science courses as well as the MIS ones."

As well as AIX training, Beck's responsibilities have also widened beyond Europe to the Middle East and Africa. South Africa is a particular hotspot for the i with a growing demand for RPG skills.

Becks says: "We’re on our third consecutive semester at the Vaal University of Technology just outside Johannesburg with really tremendous results. We’re seeing students who have never even studied or seen the i platform before with 97%, even 100%, success results in their exams. We’ve got fabulous trainers out there as well who are ambassadors for the i platform."

Nearer to home, what's the advice for British business partners and customers who need new recruits to the i?

"The first thing is they should come to me and describe their situation, the skills that they’re in need of and I will contact their local college," explains Beck. "Together we then would go and see their local college and explain to them why it’s so important not only for the college but for the local business community, that they provide i education."

Citing Barnfield College in Bedfordshire as an example of how the Academic Initiative produces students that can walk straight into a job on completion of their studies, she says: "They have been offering the operator course for some time now and producing young new blood that can support our business partner network, particularly, in the area and we’re seeing good results so we know that the programme works."