Apple on Wednesday released a free college-level computer coding course designed to teach students how to create apps, a move that’s part of the company’s push to highlight its role in the U.S. economy.
The one-year curriculum is called App Development With Swift. The programming language used for Apple apps and devices is Swift. Apple is offering the curriculum free on its App Store, but has lined up six community college systems around the nation to use the course.
“App Development with Swift is a full-year course designed by Apple engineers and educators to teach students elements of app design using Swift, one of the world’s most popular programming languages,” reads Apple’s press release. “Students will learn to code and design fully functional apps, gaining critical job skills in software development and information technology.”
The “app economy” employs around 1.53 million in the United States alone, according to numbers offered up the company, making up a majority of the two million jobs its says it’s created in the U.S.
Certainly it’s important for graduates to possess coding skills, and while Swift isn’t exactly an all-purpose language — designated solely for Apple products –there’s plenty of opportunity in those offerings and something to be said for learning the fundamentals of code, whatever language.
“The first thing Apple wanted Swift to be was approachable, “ Apple VP Lisa Jackson said. “You don’t have to be a computer science type to interact and learn this language, so it can be a first programming language. But it needs to be powerful enough to write complex apps.”
