At its annual developer conference, Apple announced a new program – Swift Playgrounds – that could dramatically improve the accessibility of coding education for children. The App Association’s Morgan Reed explains how this could benefit app companies.
“At the WWDC keynote, Tim Cook explained that ‘coding should be a required language in all schools.’ This is a sentiment strongly shared by our 5,000 member companies. Fifty of our tech executives flew to Washington, DC, in April to meet with their Senators, Members of Congress, and White House officials about the urgent need to prioritize computer science education.”
The biggest impediment to success for many tech companies is the critical shortage of talented software developers. There are nearly a quarter million openings for people matching these skills, and the competition is intense. As Apple has paid nearly $50 billion to app makers, it’s not surprising that developers command an average salary in excess of $100,000. Despite this generous compensation, only one in eight U.S. high schools teaches computer science.
“The steep challenge we face finding software developers could be alleviated,” Reed explained, “if our schools prepared students in this subject. When schoolchildren are never exposed to computer science, they are unable to pursue the subject as a college major. Tech companies can’t grow without these workers and our communities are needlessly passing up the opportunity to prepare children for rewarding careers.
“Swift Playgrounds could help make up ground lost in our nation’s schools. It uses the intuitive interactivity of the iPad’s touchscreen to help young students quickly grasp coding fundamentals. Providing these resources for free ensures that a child’s curiosity can be matched with a platform that provides immediate results.”
In one week, the App Association will release Developer Deficit, a landmark study on the software development community. With data from nearly every city in America, the report measures opportunities and challenges faced by companies looking to hire developers.