Apple Plans to Offer New 'iOS Foundation Program' at Five Universities in Italy

Apple this week opened its first iOS Developer Center at the University of Naples Federico II's new San Giovanni a Teduccio campus, located in a coastal suburb east of Naples, Italy, and the company is already planning on expanding the initiative due to its popularity.

At an event celebrating the opening of the Developer Center that was documented by Italian site Maccitynet.it, Apple's vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives Lisa Jackson told gathered students about an upcoming iOS Foundation Program, designed to teach many more students about the fundamentals of iOS app development.


A shorter version of the longer course at the iOS Developer Center, the iOS Foundation Program will see Apple teaming up with "at least five universities" across the Campania region to offer a three to four week course in app development. Apple expects the iOS Foundation Program to be available to 800 students during its first year, expanding from there.

Jackson shared few details on the upcoming program, but said it is aimed at introducing students to the iOS ecosystem.

It's a great opportunity to magnify the wonderful beginning here. It's a great opportunity to work with students and teach across the region and advance our work and the work you're doing at the first academy in Europe.

With both the iOS Developer Center and the iOS Foundation Program, Apple is hoping to give students the skills and understanding they need to transition from the education they receive in school to actually developing an app. According to Jackson, it's important to Apple to "unlock the potential of young developers" and make sure the app economy is open to everyone by giving young people the "crucial skills and support" to get into app development.

Apple's first official iOS Developer Center opened to students yesterday, with 100 students able to attend starting this week and 100 additional students starting in three months. Apple had thousands of students apply for just 200 available spots, which is why the company is planning to team up with additional universities.

The nine month course will teach students how to write code and create apps for Apple's iOS devices. Thanks to scholarships created in partnership with the University of Naples, students will attend for free and will be provided with current-generation MacBooks, iPhones, and iPads.

While the iOS Developer Center and the iOS Foundation Program are limited to Italy at this time, it stands to reason that Apple could potentially expand the experience to additional countries should it prove successful. Apple has also recently introduced Swift Playgrounds, designed to help children and beginning coders learn to use the company's Swift programming language to develop apps.

Popular Stories

iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps. More features and changes will follow in future ...
ios 26 1 liquid glass opaque

iOS 26.1 Beta 4 Lets Users Control Liquid Glass Transparency with New Toggle

Monday October 20, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass. The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted ...
iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones Coming Soon

Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released by the end of next week. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

New iPad Pro Has Six Key Upgrades Beyond M5 Chip

Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more. With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
iPhone Siri Glow

Some Apple Employees Have 'Concerns' About iOS 26.4's Revamped Siri

Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings. iOS 26.4 will...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
maxresdefault

Here's How the iOS 26.1 Transparency Toggle Changes Liquid Glass

Monday October 20, 2025 1:55 pm PDT by
With the fourth beta of iOS 26.1, Apple added a toggle that makes Liquid Glass more opaque and reduces transparency. We tested the beta to see where the toggle works and what it looks like. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. If you have the latest iOS 26.1 beta, you can go to Settings > Display and Brightness to get to the new option. Tap on Liquid Glass, then...
m4 macbook air blue

M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development

Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...

Top Rated Comments

developer13245 Avatar
118 months ago
Apple does not care about current developers... This is all PR BS...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pier Avatar
118 months ago
How about caring about actual current developers instead of future ones?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
32828870 Avatar
118 months ago
Seems great but how about, I don't know, producing new Mac's? Might help these programmers, too.apple ios foundation program italy image
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
villicodelirant Avatar
118 months ago
I wonder why Apple is partnering with Italy? I mean, it could have done this pretty much anywhere in the world. India for example would be attractive because they are trying to open that market and because it has lots of technology focused programs. Or say the USA, their biggest market and their origin.

I have no issue with Italy, so this is just an open question as to what Apples thought process was to select Italy over any where else. And then why Naples vs anywhere else within Italy?
Here is a theory.

Fact: right now the local officials really need to spin their own reality distortion field and make the electorate believe that the much-promised "recovery of the south" is actually happening (it isn't and it never will in our lifetimes).

Fact: building a vocational training center is much cheaper than building a cyclotron, but thanks to the Apple brand it gives almost the same return in publicity. Jobs' RDF still works from beyond the grave and will for quite a while.

Fact: Apple can use the cheap publicity it itself gets.

Fact: Apple can totally use a training center that churns out developers at home with Apple technology, and consequently, a injection of fresh apps on the Store. Especially if it's basically free (heavily subsidized with public money).

The hypotesis, therefore, is "because - depending on who made the first move - only the Neapolitan officials were either gullible enough to fall for the deal or evil enough to propose it".
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
radiology Avatar
118 months ago
So fashionable...I'm sure the students wil also come up with ideas for new bands that Tim and Angela will love!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Feenician Avatar
118 months ago
So, where will you develop them? On a Windows machine I guess.
I can only imagine this made more sense in your head than it does on the page.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)