Scarce legacy programming skills hit unemployment/SBA benefits processing hard -- is there a lesson here?

Proposal

At a time when it's tempting to think technology will lead us out of our global pandemic, apparently unemployment and SBA benefits are being held up by a lack of COBOL programming skills.

See: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/business/coronavirus-cobol-programmers-new-jersey-trnd/index.html

Can we offer an advice-based blog piece on this topic? It seems like this situation is ripe for the open source community and all of our Java/Ruby people to get creative. Is there a role for GL/the industry/our community to play here? Should our piece simply outline the issues and ask for suggestions?

The COBOL situation has been tricky for years as most of the proficient are older and retiring in droves. There are/have been industry initiatives trying to address this issue (notably from IBM here: https://ibmsystemsmag.com/IBM-Z/10/2019/closing-cobol-programming-skills-gap) and even ZipRecruiter is touting available jobs for COBOL programmers (here: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/e/Are-COBOL-Programmers-Still-in-Demand).

There are some education options: https://www.udemy.com/course/mainframe-the-complete-cobol-course-from-beginner-to-expert/ https://www.linkedin.com/learning/topics/cobol https://www.learningtree.com/courses/2301/enterprise-cobol-programming-part-1/

This is a great (and funny if profane) look at the issue: https://www.cbronline.com/news/cobol-help-new-jersey

IBM training: https://www.techspot.com/news/84796-us-states-desperate-cobol-programmers-ibm-offering-free.html?fbclid=IwAR1M2tlg2MeLHsG7ZzHawzPtsliTBaJX-1EgTlxIdr4BSHihN6sn-JbKpeo

an open MR within GL: gitlab-org/gitlab-runner#3263 (closed)

https://www.rocketsoftware.com/zos-open-source/tools

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