The first Apple Developer Academy opened in Brazil in 2013, with the goal of providing the tools and training for aspiring entrepreneurs, developers, and designers to find and create jobs in the thriving iOS app economy. Since then, the company has opened more than a dozen academies across the world with two more on the way: one in Korea, and one in Detroit, Michigan, the first-ever US location. The program has empowered students around the world with app development and entrepreneurial training, many of whom have gone on to start their own businesses, create and sell apps on the App Store, and give back to their communities. With the expansion plans underway, thousands more students worldwide will now have access to these opportunities each year.
The new academy programs in Detroit and Korea will join more than a dozen other sites in Brazil, Indonesia, and Italy. Across the world, whether students are in Naples, Italy, or Jakarta, Indonesia, academy participants learn the fundamentals of coding as well as core professional competencies, design, and marketing, ensuring graduates have the full suite of skills needed to contribute to their local business communities. The curriculum also incorporates Apple’s values throughout the coursework, encouraging students to design inclusively and make a positive impact in the world.
Apple offers two distinct training programs as part of the Apple Developer Academy: 30-day foundations courses that cover specific topic areas, including an introductory course for those considering app development as a career path, and a more intensive 10- to 12-month academy program that dives deeper into coding and professional skills.
Applications for the first academy cohort in Detroit — Apple’s first Developer Academy in the US — open this week. The academy, part of Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, is scheduled to open in October in a newly redesigned space in downtown Detroit. All Michigan residents 18 and over are welcomed to apply, regardless of prior coding experience, at developeracademy.msu.edu/students.
For many academy graduates, the community aspect is as important as the hard skills they learn through their coursework. Students have the opportunity to learn from new colleagues from different personal and professional backgrounds, each of whom brings new ideas and life experiences to their app designs and business plans. For some, those new friends go on to become co-workers and business partners.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place June 7 through 11, in an all-online format. WWDC will feature hundreds of sessions for developers of all ages and backgrounds — including hundreds of current and former Apple Developer Academy students — to learn about the new technologies, tools, and frameworks they rely on to build innovative and platform – differentiating apps and games.
So their first location in the US is actually in Detroit? This is very good news to hear. I would like to see industry in Michigan diversify. It would be great to see more software companies establish a presence here in addition to having a strong auto industry. If this can encourage young students to go into STEM that that would be great for this state.