A special group of Manta Technologies customers has been asking the company for years, “When are you going to offer COBOL courses?” says Bill Hansen, Manta owner. "We are delighted to announce that COBOL is now here," he says. "Our authors, who developed IBM's first mainframe COBOL curriculum in the early 1980s, have brought their COBOL expertise to Manta's interactive IBM i training."

The first course in Manta's new COBOL Programming series is available. Called Developing a COBOL Program, it provides a five-hour introduction to the COBOL language in general and ILE COBOL in particular. After completing this course, students will be able to code a complete COBOL program, to read an input file, reformat records, and create an output file.

Manta's goal is to release one COBOL course per month in 2012, eventually growing this series to 10-12 courses lasting 40 to 60 hours. The result will be the most extensive, and only up-to-date, COBOL curriculum in the industry.

As with all Manta courses, a one-year, single-user license for Developing a COBOL Program is available for $120. Customers who opt for the entire series will receive a two-year license for the price of one year for only $1,296.  Each new course will appear in the student’s menu as it becomes available.

Customers who have existing licenses to the IBM i Training Library or the Program Development Combination Pack will discover that COBOL programming already has been added to their menu options.

Students can check out the new series by visiting www.mantatech.com, where you can try the first session of any of Manta’s 111 courses and Competency Exams, including the new COBOL product.