Slashdot Mirror
IBM Training Employees To Leave IBM?
lucabrasi999 writes "IBM just launched a new program that will encourage some employees to earn teaching certificates and degrees. IBM will help defray the costs of these new degrees. With those newly earned degrees, the IBM employee would then become a 'former' IBM employee who moves onto a career as a public school math or science teacher. While it seems odd that IBM would encourage employees to switch careers, the point is that IBM is trying to help offset an expected shortage in the number of math and science teachers in the United States." From the article: "While many companies encourage their employees to tutor schoolchildren or do other things to get involved in education, IBM believes it is the first to guide workers toward switching into a teaching career. The company expects older workers nearing retirement to be the most likely candidates, partly because they would have more financial wherewithal to take the pay cut that becoming a teacher likely would entail."
The DoD and DoE has had this for years.
Troops to Teachers
Still...not too shabby.
Shortage is IBM's mainframe skills... IBM is running on its last generation of mainframe employees.
I'm not sure where you get your info, but a few weeks ago I met a handful of young IBM workers from their mainframe department. They each work in different teams and told me there are both young and old. There's simply an age gap due to the 10 years of not hiring in the NY state area. But there are plenty of young employees working on ancient systems. These weren't kids installing linux, either. They were talking Z/OS and encryption.
Developers: We can use your help.
Before it was Slashdoted, and it seems like a Short and long term win win Situation:
IBM Wins, short term: Good karma, and reducing (somewhat) their headcount.
Employee wins: A new career, pursued while still having IBM benefits (like health plan) and partial salary, because they will be in a leave of absence.
IBM wins, long term: Continuin g supply of skilled workforce
Society wins: Teachers.
This is a sort of thing that companies have been doing for a lon time, but this is a very innovative way for them to do it... kudos to IBM.
In Venezuela we dub this "La cajita feliz" (the happy meal, a reference to McDonalds kids lunch). When you offer incentives to the employees to leave on their own will, therefore reducing headcount without layoffs.
Our PTT, CANTV, did this. In HP now, to reach their staffing targets, they anounced a change of the early retirement policy, and many employees arte taking advantage before the deadline, so, in the end, they will reduce the workforce by some number X of employees, but they will have laid off a number less than x, the others leaving on their own volition....
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
I totally disagree. I believe one of the reasons education has problem finding people is because of the myth perpetuated by Teacher Unions, that teachers are poorly paid. In Southern California, the starting salary for a primary school teacher is 42-45k(working only 9 months), that's way above the starting salary for college grad. And their salary doesn't cap until it reaches almost 6 figures. I started my career making only 35k.
Dude What the heck your saying "So we can teach the H1-Bs kids !!!" Just because the uncle sam came up with a new terminology for imigrants who comes to fulfil their american dream there are just good as you folks who can vote and gets paid more, further more unless your a native american some time ago in in the early days your grand dad or his dad came to this country with the same mindset. Just because back then none of this berocracy didn;t exisit doesnt mean people on H1-B is any differnt from them.
http://iesucks.org
Somehow I doubt the $80k-$100k salaried employees will be the ones applying and/or picked. Probably people more like me, making $40k in support, not $100k in product development.
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
IBM's pension plan is not designed this way, at least not for the people who are eligible for this program (10 years or more at IBM). You keep your pension. You are vested after a year.
JoAnn
IBM employee