Riyadh has been the destination picked by Apple for their first-ever Apple Developer Academy in the Middle East region.
Joining more than a dozen Developer Academies, the Riyadh academy will focus on providing tools and encouragement for female developers. This aims to give women a steady presence in the App Development industry, as well as the opportunity to have an important presence inside App Store. This new strategy coincides with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 project to fight and support venues to develop female power inside the country.
Apple won’t be alone in this new Developer Academy. Their partnership with the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) will be at the center of this venture in the region. Faisal Al-Khamisi, from the Board of Directors at SAFCSP, has thanked Apple for this decision. He had this to say at the press release:
“In our partnership with Apple, we will work together and strive to create an economic ecosystem for businesses to instill skills and enhance innovation and technology, and ensure a sustainable and prosperous future for our local community and the societies of the world that will undoubtedly benefit from the technical cadres that will recive education and training at the Apple Academy”
This appears to be part of Apple’s bigger effort for gender equality in the tech industry, as well as fostering the talent of the new generation of developers. If things go as planned, we can expect even more Developer Academies all around the world, giving tools and a platform for young and upcoming developers that aim to make the world better through their App experiences.