Mesa college one of six in US offering class to develop apps for Apple

PHOENIX — Students at a Mesa college will be part of a select few over the coming years to design apps for Apple and earn class credit at the same time.

Mesa Community College began offering the course this semester. It is one of a handful of schools in the country that paired with the tech giant to teach students app design.

“It’s a programming opportunity,” Linda Collins, who heads the school’s business and information department, said.

“It’s something new that we haven’t heard about before. It is using Apple Swift X code and we said, ‘We can hit the ground running’ and they got back to us shortly thereafter and said, ‘You’re one of six.'”

Though the class has a daunting title — Object-oriented Programming Fundamentals-Intro to App Development using Swift/Xcode — students have been rushing to grab a spot.

Collins said the school only offered one class originally, but that was soon expanded.

“It filled almost immediately and then we added another class and another class and finally we added a fourth class about a month ago and that one only has four seats left,” she said.

The school built a classroom in which to teach the Apple-focused class.

Apple said it chose community colleges for the course because it wanted to expand job opportunities and increase access for women and minorities.

“Community colleges play a critical role in helping students achieve their dreams, and we hope these courses will open doors for people of all ages and backgrounds to pursue what they love,” CEO Tim Cook said in a press release.

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