Health Insurance Commission Case Study of Trainees

The HIC IT operation is by no means the largest in the public sector, but it is certainly a significant IBM environment. The IT function at HIC is very complex operation, in part, because the systems have been constantly refined since the early 1980's and expanded to accommodate frequent legislative and policy changes. Also in part because the IT infrastructure began as a mainframe only environment and has evolved to include complex mid-range and Wintel infrastructure operating in a very demanding and dynamic web-based e-business/on-line environment. The organisation has a heavy dependency on mainframe processing for handling the lion‘s share of its current transaction load.

When seen from this perspective, one understands why the mainframe and mid-range applications are such a significant proportion of the overall applications portfolio at the Health Insurance Commission, and, even though, those components are just as critical, in an ideal world, anyone coming into the HIC IT environment should understand the totality of the technology and that includes the mainframe and mid-range. Even working as a web developer it is essential that they know something about what is behind that layer.

The problem the Commission has experienced in the past with IT graduates is their very limited understanding of the mainframe and mid-range environments, particularly in terms of programming languages, principles of operation, and software development practices and procedures. It takes a lot of mentoring to get them to a point where they can become productive in their own right. By comparison the Trainees have made a conscious decision to work in that environment and as graduates come into it with a good working knowledge of all of those issues. Of even more benefit is their understanding of the broader and more complex integrated mid-range and Wintel environment.

The prospects for the Trainees are thus, very good, and by the time they graduate they will have a significant and broad amount of experience to put on their resumes that will stand them in good stead in any IT Job Market.

It is difficult to predict future salary levels and, while the current rate for mainframe and mid-range developers is on a par with that of web developers, that differential will grow in favour of the mainframe and mid-range developers as the other skills become more common place. By comparison, anyone who starts with a good skills base in mainframe, or better still all environments, will be able to take advantage of any movements in the commercial environment. Mainframes and mid-range will change, but that is unlikely to be challenged in its processing strength and so the skill base of the Trainee is unlikely to become redundant.

The Traineees
Bruce Drysdale, Jeremy Mackie, Craig Mills

Bruce Drysdale (24)

Before enrolling at Griffith University I completed a Certificate at Logan T AFE in Queensland and decided to go on to a degree program. I was in my first year at Griffith and I heard about the Traineeship and decided to have a go. I look back now and can't really believe I got it because, at first, I didn't like the idea of moving to Canberra so I almost gave it a miss.

I went through the first summer school and learnt enough about mainframes so that, when I started work in February, I could figure out what they were talking about. My first job was on HTML coding doing things like fixing spelling errors on the HIC web site. That got to a point where I had to do something more serious so I put up my hand to learn the document management system. I was soon teaching the others how to use the system and then I pushed to get onto the Lotus Notes team for four months before going to the second summer school.

The second year was in the data warehousing area and that gave me really good exposure to the mainframe. I had to learn how reports are generated using SAS and JCL and how those reports are used in the business. It is a fairly complex environment, but it falls into place once you understand the basics.
That understanding of the mainframe has helped me a lot in doing the work this year because I was shifted to the ECLIPSE project, the B2B system for communicating with the health industry. It is a high-profile development and, while it involves mostly Java programming, I now understand what is happening at the back end. That is a major advantage and something that will stay with me because I know that I can always move across the platform of a large organisation.
That's why I look back and realise I could have missed out just because I didn't want to move. Fact is after living in Canberra I have never been fitter because you tend to be a lot more active here with sport. It's also where the big mainframe sites are located.

Jeremy Mackie (21 )

I was enrolled in the Bachelor of Information Technology at the University of Western Sydney and saw the advertisement for Trainees on the web. I went through an interview with Global Online Learning and that prepared me for the interview with HIC in Canberra. The HIC interview was pretty informal and relaxed. I decided that I really liked the people and wanted to work there. I come from Campbelltown in Sydney so Canberra didn't seem too far away.
I went to Summer School at the end of 2002 and came back to work in February 2003. By that time, I had a basic understanding of the mainframe environment and when I came back to HIC, I went straight into mainframe programming. I used COBOL and worked in the DB2 environment on the Medicare system through to the second summer school in December.

In the second year I worked on web development using HTML and then started to move into the design of systems. By the end of that year, I had received a thorough grounding across the HIC platform from mainframe to front end. On the basis of that experience, I have been selected in this my third year to go into a Centre of Excellence supporting Unicenter which is a CA product used for managing IT operations.

Working in the Centre of Excellence is the recognition I hoped to achieve in the Traineeship. The three years at HIC has given me an opportunity to work on very large systems with experts in their field. Going to summer school with the other trainees has given me a network across the top end of computing in Australia. That network is like opening a door and it will definitely help me in my future career.

Craig Mills (21)

I come from Russell Island near Brisbane and was commuting to Griffith University where I was enrolled in a Bachelor of Information Technology. I applied for the Traineeship and when I was offered the position in Canberra by HIC I jumped at it. The first summer school was a bit of a shock because you do three subjects, one every three weeks. It is a lot of work to get through and very intense. Plus, you have to cope with the heat of southern Queensland and, although I was used to it, you don't normally have to study at that time of the year.

I didn't mind moving to Canberra and HIC made it easy for us by helping with accommodation. For the entire first year I worked on the data warehouse project and then in the second year, on the Medicare system using COBOL. That combination of skills is a good grounding to large systems. This year, I am working with Jeremy in the Centre of Excellence on Unicenter.

The Traineeship has given me a "foot in the door" because now I can be employed to work on large systems. I imagine I will always be associated with that sort of environment and, since the technology is not likely to go away anytime soon, I feel comfortable with my prospects. The mainframe is really a safety net: I have the experience and I can always fall back on it.