You’d think the mainframe was going away

But in fact, it’s a fact of life and here to stay. I work for the State of Missouri as a Programmer/Analyst. Our development project is using Cool:Gen. While I believe the shelf life of Cool:Gen may be waning, I have no doubt that people versed in the mainframe are going to be a commodity for a long time to come. I wonder what suggestions people would have for junior level programmers when it comes to mainframe programming.