Several years ago, one could learn computer programming at COPE, SYRIT, Chubb, other vocational schools, and colleges.
The type of programming that was taught (at least at COPE and SYRIT) was for business applications, as opposed to operating systems, utilities, games, etc.
This is no longer true today.
1) Programming can be done by someone sitting at a terminal in India, China, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, and so on. Their salaries are often a fraction of what a living wage in the U.S. is.
2) Many huge institutions and corporations that had large Information Technology (IT) departments either collapsed or drastically cut their staff and budgets. Even some government agencies have had rounds of layoffs that impacted their IT departments.
4) Even those fortunate to have kept their corporate IT jobs are often without the security, without the ability to switch companies, and without the salary advancements they used to have/get in the past. They are playing a game of musical chairs with an ever-decreasing number of positions available. Corporations and bosses know it, and they often behave accordingly.
– Are too sensitive to outsource to overseas workers.
– Require the programmer to be physically present at a certain location.
– Need someone talented and trustworthy who you know will be available when needed.
There are people who have done quite well with computer-based innovations, Zuckerberg (Facebook), Page and Brin (Google), YW Editor (Yeshivaworld), and many less-famous people as well.
Nonetheless, to most people, especially, the frum community, programming means business-related IT.