My advice would be for him to identify specific applications of programming that interest him and then focus on identifying the skills he'd need to develop expe

My advice would be for him to identify specific applications of programming that interest him and then focus on identifying the skills he'd need to develop expertise. One approach would be product or industry specific. Maybe he'e really intrigued by applications of GIS and that could lead to exploring specific companies in that space and the talent they need. Another would be open source. Maybe he's really interested in databases and could dive deep into that part of open source and find out what things he wants to do. No guarantees with either route, but the older you get, the worse the odds are if you are just a person with programming ability like many others.