In November 2024, the FERIT Mainframe Academy was launched—an innovative educational program developed in collaboration between FERIT, IBM Croatia, and CROZ, aimed at training young professionals to work with mainframe technologies. The launch of the program was marked by the Mainframe Day event and the second edition of the Codeathon at FERIT.

In its first year (2024/25), the course Fundamentals of Mainframe Technology received over 20 applications, with 10 students selected who successfully completed the program. The curriculum included five lectures and seven lab sessions, totaling 30 hours of instruction, delivered jointly by FERIT faculty and experts from IBM and CROZ. Students worked on a real mainframe system and had access to the Interskill and IBM zXplore platforms.

The program was led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zdravko Krpić and Luka Kaučić, with mentoring support from partner companies. The students achieved outstanding results.

On Interskill alone, 550 educational modules were completed, along with 131 courses, earning 42 digital badges (certificates), and totaling 207 hours of education. Six students completed all available courses, and Interskill provided highly positive feedback on their progress.

Through the program, students established connections with Croatian IBM Z system users, and nearly all secured summer internships at renowned companies: CROZ, Intheos, True North, APIS IT, and Zagrebačka banka.

The top four students of this cohort participated in CROZ’s Mighty Mainframe conference in Zadar, with all expenses covered. In Zadar, they met young mainframe professionals from across Europe and had the opportunity to network with prominent IBM experts from around the world, including IBM Fellow Rosalind Radcliffe.