However, I'm having some trouble on finding an opportunity of getting access to a mainframe for practice.
Could anyone give me some ideas/directions? I totally consider paying for such access, naturally.
PS: suggestions/advice are welcome as well, as I'm still just thinking about taking this path. Besides, I think I'm well aware of what I'll eventually encounter in terms of code quality and maintainability -- I've been working with 'older' languages and legacy projects for some time now and I feel less unhappy this away.
I've done 4 or 5 including z/OS and COBOL.
There's also:
https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/education/zxplore
Which appears to be the replacement for the Master the Mainframe program. Includes real machine access.
Although it's usefulness in comparison to real z/OS access is debatable, you might also check out the TK4- system which is an old MVS packaged along with the Hercules emulator. A lot of stuff hasn't changed in z/OS, but a lot has.