[barrysaunders]

Does she want to use her COBOL experience? There's a lot of COBOL consulting work with government and banking clients, and it's common for those consultants to be older. Her military experience will help here. I've know some COBOL consultants who found it to be quite flexible, too.

Unless she's particularly interested in learning new frameworks, I wouldn't suggest trying to do internships as she'd be starting from zero, competing against young coders.