Core Curriculum for All
At any given time, roughly 100 learners are actively progressing via EMMA, drawn from a complete inhabitants of roughly 300 who’ve entered this system up to now. Those that persist are likely to share one trait: curiosity.
“They wish to be on this house,” Rose stated. “They’ve the fervour to do it, and the grit to push via as a result of it’s a self-paced program.”
Anybody can apply. There aren’t any conditions or exclusions. The preliminary EMMA Coaching Portal takes learners from zero to navigating a 3270 session.
Cohorts
This system follows an outlined development. New learners start with orientation, then transfer into small cohorts of about 10. Every cohort has a captain who helps information progress and scale back friction when asking questions.
That cohort mannequin didn’t come from principle however from learners themselves. Including small teams was a direct response to suggestions, a part of an ongoing refinement course of EMMA actively encourages. A broader Slack group stays obtainable, together with weekly calls hosted by the cofounders.
COBOL and Assembler
The subsequent step is a COBOL course, adopted by an Assembler course—each designed by Decker and primarily based on the identical coursework he teaches at NIU.
“There’s nothing reduce,” Decker stated. “It’s not watered down. They’re doing the actual stuff.”
The emphasis on fundamentals is intentional. As Jeff Brown, one other volunteer skilled and self-described “outdated SYSPROG,” defined, EMMA favors confirmed, sturdy interfaces over tooling developments to make sure expertise switch throughout environments.
“They’re on a stay mainframe,” Rose stated. “They get precise hours doing the work.”
They educate on the 3270 as a result of it’s nonetheless the business customary, and this EMMA develops expertise that can outlast instruments.
