With the digital world rapidly influencing every part of our daily lives, learning how to code is now a vital skill.
Schools recently began including coding as part of the National Curriculum with a recent survey revealing that a quarter of children say it’s their favourite subject.
However, the statistics also show that the introduction of coding into the National Curriculum has left many parents baffled.
Nearly a third of parents don’t believe that they can help their children with computing homework and two fifths said they ‘dread’ being asked about it.
Now Apple has announced that it is offering hundreds more free coding sessions in its famous stores with both children and adults able to attend and learn more about this essential topic.
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The initiative is in support of EU Code Week which aims to help people of all ages get to grips with this digital language.
Apple already features regular coding sessions in some of its stores but the US technology firm says it plans to offer more than 6,000 extra coding sessions across Europe in the next year as part of Today at Apple programme.
Aspiring coders of all ages can learn how to code in Swift, one of the world’s most popular programming languages. With sessions like ‘Get Started with Coding’, ‘Kids Hour Sphero Maze Challenge’ and ‘How to Program Robots with Swift Playgrounds’, there are sessions to suit different skill levels.
Speaking about the coding sessions, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said: “We believe coding is the language of the future that everyone should have the chance to learn.
“We’ve built a range of innovative and free tools to make sure coding is fun and accessible to everyone. We know the incredible impact technology can have on lives and the opportunities it can bring to communities.”
The technology sector is one of the fastest-growing industries across Europe, and computing and informatics professionals are in high demand.
There are now 1.36 million jobs in Europe attributable to Apple’s iOS app economy.
Apple has paid out nearly $18 billion to developers across Europe since the App Store launched.
Apple introduced Swift Playgrounds and its comprehensive Everyone Can Code curriculum in 2016, both of which are available for free, with the goal of reinventing how to learn to code by making it easy and fun for everyone.
The current free coding sessions run from now until October 22 and can be booked via Apple’s dedicated website.