Apple Wants to Teach You How to Code Apps

Apple is stepping into college classrooms.

The tech giant has developed a curriculum to teach high school and community college students how to code and build apps for computers and smartphones using Apple's own coding language Swift.

Swift is open source, but primarily used to create iOS apps, so Apple has a clear incentive to push its own language.

The curriculum will also be free on iBooks for anyone to download and teach themselves. But with 180 hours of training with lesson plans, instruction and exercises for teachers, Apple is hoping it will feature heavily in college classrooms.

The company is starting by partnering with six community college systems across the country to offer full-year classes. Apple says its branch into tech education is part of an attempt to address the industrywide demand for programmers and coders.

“We’ve seen firsthand the impact that coding has on individuals and the U.S. economy as a whole," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. "The app economy and software development are among the fastest-growing job sectors in America and we’re thrilled to be providing educators and students with the tools to learn coding."