Apple Developer Academy in Detroit Now Accepting Applications

Hailee Bryant-Roye, left, pursues new teaching and learning opportunities with Apple’s Everyone Can Code and Everyone Can Create curricula offered through the company’s collaboration with Tenessee State Uuniversity. Jared Bailey, right, a senior at Morehouse College, has integrated Apple’s coding and creativity curricula into his public health and community service work as part of the school’s partnership with Apple.

Images courtesy of Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative

Applications for the first academy cohort in Detroit — Apple’s first Developer Academy in the US — are now open to qualifying Michigan residents.

The Michigan Chronicle reported earlier here that the Academy was slated to open later this year. The academy is scheduled to open in October in a newly redesigned space in downtown Detroit as part Apple’s $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI). All Michigan residents 18 and over are welcomed to apply, regardless of prior coding experience, at developeracademy.msu.edu/students.

“We are thrilled to open our first US Apple Developer Academy here in Detroit, a hub of entrepreneurship, creativity, and inclusion. We strive to empower dreamers and doers, providing the tools and training they need to be part of the fast-growing iOS App Economy and be an engine for growth in Detroit and beyond,” according to a quote from Apple.

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 — 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.