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."

Comments

The first?

[YrWrstNtmr]

IBM believes it is the first to guide workers toward switching into a teaching career

The DoD and DoE has had this for years.
Troops to Teachers

Still...not too shabby.

Re:Shortage

[truthsearch]

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.

I RTFA when it was posted in FRAK

[williamyf]

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....