Not a dumb question at all!
In Europe I’ve seen a few training programs held by companies looking to get new talent in to learn from the older techs. Browse around and see if any companies around you have something like that.
There are some free resources available that will allow you to get training but I haven’t tried them myself. IBM Z Xplore is worth a look as an example: https://www.ibm.com/products/z/resources/zxplore
I hope you find a way in, more mainframe developers and sysadmins(often called systemsprogrammers in the mainframe niche) are always needed.
I’m not a COBOL dev but I work with mainframes(z/OS).
Most COBOL applications I’ve seen have been banking and insurance related with few exceptions.
Most of them either run as a series of batch jobs or via transaction managers like IMS and CICS.
Backends are usually sequential files(we call them datasets),DB2,VSAM(Virtual Storage Access Method) or DL/1(hierarchical DB that’s part of IMS).
Quite a few places I’ve seen have run IBM MQ as well.
If changes are made to these systems it’s often due to changes in regulation or driven by changes in the business(new financial products being offered etc.
Off-topic: I’ve seen quite a few mainframe related posts on HN fly by over the years. I’ve been meaning to create an account and participate but I’ve only gotten around to it just now.
There are some free resources available that will allow you to get training but I haven’t tried them myself. IBM Z Xplore is worth a look as an example: https://www.ibm.com/products/z/resources/zxplore
I hope you find a way in, more mainframe developers and sysadmins(often called systemsprogrammers in the mainframe niche) are always needed.
Edit*: Spelling and grammar