Apple

Austin, Texas — Apple today announced the App Development with Swift curriculum will now be offered in more than 30 community colleges across the country in the 2017-2018 school year, providing opportunities to millions of students to build apps that will prepare them for careers in software development and information technology. The Austin Community College District (ACC), one of the nation’s largest higher learning institutions, will begin offering the course to its 74,000 students this fall. Created by engineers and educators at Apple, the full-year App Development with Swift course teaches students how to build apps using Swift, an open source programming language that emphasizes safety, performance and modern software design patterns. The course takes students with no programming experience and enables them to build fully-functional apps of their own design.

The curriculum prepares students for job opportunities in the fast-growing app economy. “We’ve seen firsthand how Apple’s app ecosystem has transformed the global economy, creating entire new industries and supporting millions of jobs,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We believe passionately that same opportunity should be extended to everyone, and community colleges have a powerful reach into communities where education becomes the great equalizer.” Serving one of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas, ACC educates students across 11 campuses and eight counties. With more than 7,000 current job openings in tech fields, Austin’s leaders have aligned on a workforce development plan that empowers residents to take advantage of these new business opportunities.