Why Ongoing Education Matters for the Mainframe Skills Gap

I graduated virtually with my Master’s degree in 2020, about two months after COVID-19 shut down much of the world. Behind the scenes, I had been working for Enterprise Performance Strategies, Inc. (EPS) since 2017, so I had a supportive professional environment while missing in-person learning and my academic community.

Almost six years later, I find myself missing learning in general. Being a student in higher education is an indescribable feeling – almost stuck in between two worlds, two versions of yourself, that are both still you, but vastly different. One version feels like an old you, and the other feels like the you that you are trying to become.

I’ve realized that learning has always made me feel like I could be better, sharper, just more. With life’s daily stresses, career pressures, and families, it’s easy to forget how good learning makes us feel and how necessary it is to keep growing, personally and professionally. Whether it’s a good book, a podcast, interactive training, or your favorite format of learning, it’s essential we prioritize our educational growth.

Part of my role at EPS is organizing and planning our trainings — workshops, webinars, and more. We’ve seen a steady decrease in funding since we started conducting z/OS performance workshops in 2001. Economies ebb and flow and companies restructure. Funding dollars for education always seem to be the first thing to go, and subsequently, the employees suffer.

Ongoing Education Benefits Everyone

I’m in the process of learning more about what our Z community feels we are lacking and how we can plan for the future. In a survey we conducted in September of 2025, we asked, “Are there any challenges you’re currently facing that you’d like help with or more information about?” Almost 20% of respondents felt that the biggest challenge they are facing was the lack of personnel and/or ongoing education.

We know learning doesn’t stop when the degree is delivered, so we have made it our mission at EPS to share the knowledge we have gained over decades with our peers. New grads and seasoned professionals alike always have something to gain – whether it’s new skills, tips for machine updates, or even just a refresher on how to conduct a performance analysis.

Most Valuable Content for Learners

In our survey, we also asked respondents what type of content they felt was most valuable. As shown in graphic one, the overwhelming majority of respondents felt “Best Practices and Tips” and “Step-by-Step/How-Tos” were most valuable to them, followed by “Deep Dives into Research and Historical Data” and  “Industry Trends and Changes.”

These results tell me that performance specialists are looking for practical, professional training that will help them do their jobs better, rather than learning for curiosity’s sake. The people are yearning for learning!

Online Education Improves Accessibility

When COVID-19 shook the world, EPS took a short break from teaching, but we decided to restructure, too. Since then, we opted to teach solely online to help meet our students’ needs. Not only did this move make education more accessible globally, but it also reduced the cost of attending. Now, students only pay for the workshop; no more dollars for flights, hotels, or food. It’s important for educators to meet students where they are. In this case, it’s making education more accessible, cheaper, and as useful as possible.

Key In-Depth Workshops

At EPS, we offer three high-value, in-depth virtual workshops taught each year by President and Founder Peter Enrico, and CIO and Director of Software Design and Development, Scott Chapman.

All three of our workshops offer students of any level an opportunity to learn something new or hone specific skills. Performance analysts, capacity planners, and systems programmers alike (and their management) will feel their investment has been well-spent, especially as time goes on.

1. Our Workload Manager (WLM) Performance and Re-evaluating Goals workshop will be held June 22 – 26, 2026, and will be taught by Peter Enrico. This workshop focuses on learning to monitor, tune, and control how WLM manages your workload, and when to re-evaluate goals over time. Side note – learning WLM from someone who helped develop it is an enormous advantage.
2. Peter also teaches a Parallel Sysplex and z/OS Performance Tuning workshop May 12 – 13, 2026. In this brief but useful workshop, Peter will instruct students on measuring, monitoring, and tuning coupling facilities and structures, and will review the basic concepts of XCF, Parallel Sysplex, and data sharing.
3. Coming up soon, Scott provides students with a solid foundation of knowledge about the factors driving performance and capacity in mainframe z/OS environment in his Essential z/OS Performance Tuning workshop. In his class, he helps the group explore practices necessary to measure, understand, and improve z/OS system performance. This class will be held March 30 – April 3, 2026.

Full outlines, pricing, and registration are available at pivotor.com/index.html#workshops. 

Make Yourself Invaluable

Another perspective is that, to make yourself invaluable to your manager or for a new role you’re seeking, having knowledge across multiple areas is advantageous and makes you a more well-rounded candidate. One attendee felt learning about performance was new to them, but it ended up being a great opportunity.

Free Webinars on 100+ Topics

Paid education is all well and good, but as I mentioned, training dollars are limited at many organizations. At EPS, we offer free education in another form – webinars. Since 2018, we have developed a program of over 100 webinars on a wide variety of topics related to Z and performance. With these short, live webinars, we have accumulated a real community of learners.

Accessing affordable, relevant education can be a challenge, so we also set aside time specifically for questions about any topic. Our website also features these past webinars and papers. Finding free resources is a goldmine. Here’s ours: https://www.pivotor.com/content.html. No mining needed!

Reaching Optimal Mainframe Efficiency

Aside from our training, EPS is most well-known for our Pivotor® z/OS Performance Reporting Software. Our solution helps companies understand their environment better to reach optimal mainframe efficiency.

Branching off our educational mission at EPS, we want our customers to receive the type of expertise and assistance we would want if the roles were reversed. Pivotor was created with the customer in mind, using the Actual Intelligence of our creators Peter Enrico and Scott Chapman. We want our users to understand the meaning behind what they are doing when using Pivotor. Informative “helps” and customizable actions are woven into our software service. Customers find many uses for Pivotor, as graphic 2 shows.

Customer-reported uses for Pivotor

Customers can contact our technical support with questions when they need, and we also give them an annual performance review to discuss their current environment and any issues they may be experiencing. 

Whether it’s time to switch to a z17, a report is not making sense, or something needs saving, EPS is here for our clients. Pivotor also reports on DB2, CICS, MQ, and other transactional data, uniting teams to achieve collective success. Our goal is that when customers use Pivotor, they are learning along the way.

Lifelong Education

We believe in lifelong education. This can come from mentorships, conferences, workshops, YouTube videos, peer-to-peer relationships – anywhere. Our team at EPS hopes we can be a part of your learning journey. We encourage new learners to seek out knowledge wherever they go. When company culture prioritizes education, they save time and money by reducing costly mistakes, shortening onboarding, and preserving institutional knowledge as the workforce inevitably changes. Well-trained teams work more efficiently and solve problems proactively to prevent costly issues before they occur. Whether it’s a dollar investment or a time investment, investing in the education of your workforce will be the best investment you ever make. Retirement is inevitable – a skills gap doesn’t have to be.