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Getting into mainframes is damn near impossible without fluking into an apprenticeship, is the problem.

Taking the IBM courses to fully qualify as a dinosaur herder costs as much as a computer science degree.

The other problem: kids aren't dreaming of maintaining 360 assembler, COBOL or PL/I applications.

The IBM System z Remote Development Programs (zRDP) [1] costs a little less than $600 per month, and gives you access to a system sufficiently robust for learning. I don't know how it would work to have multiple IDs for multiple people on the same subscription. But if you can trust everyone in a group of 10-20, and work out a shared access schedule, then it can be quite affordable. You might need to come up with some development project as a stated reason to join, but that is easy enough.

[1] http://dtsc.dfw.ibm.com/MVSDS/%27HTTPD2.ENROL.PUBLIC.SHTML%2...

It sounds like if IBM were serious about getting people skilled up on their platform you'd be able to get access to a system for a bit less than $600/month. $0/month sounds about what they should be shooting for.

It appears to be a test platform for ISVs, not a training program.

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