Two years ago, Lizmary Fernandez took a detour from studying to become an immigration lawyer to take part in a free Apple course for creating iPhone apps. The Apple Developer Academy in Detroit was launched as part of the company's $200 million response to the Black Lives Matter protests and aims to expand opportunities for people of color in the country's poorest big city.
But Fernandez felt the program's cost-of-living benefits were lacking — “Many of us were on food stamps,” she says — and that the courses were insufficient to land a coding job. “I didn't have the experience or the portfolio,” says the 25-year-old, who is now a flight attendant and preparing for law school. “Coding is not something I will return to.”
Since 2021, the academy has welcomed more than 1,700 students, a racially diverse mix with varying levels of technical knowledge and financial flexibility. About 600 students, including Fernandez, completed the 10-month, half-day course at Michigan State University, which co-sponsors the Apple-branded and Apple-focused programs.
WIRED reviewed contracts and budgets and spoke with officials and graduates for the first in-depth examination of the nearly $30 million invested in the academy over the past four years — nearly 30 percent of which came from Michigan taxpayers and the university's regular students. As tech giants begin pouring billions of dollars into AI-related job training across the country, the Apple Academy offers lessons on the challenges of uplifting diverse communities.
Measuring success
Seven graduates who spoke to WIRED said they had good experiences at the academy, citing benefits such as receiving mentorship from former students. Fernandez says she was impressed by the focus on developing inclusive apps and by a range of Apple speakers who were genuinely willing to help and share candid lessons. “Their hearts were in the right place,” she says.
The program exposes people of color to new possibilities. “It changed my life,” says Min Thu Khine, who now mentors coding students and works at an Apple Store Genius Bar. “My dream is to become a software engineer at Apple.”
The academy also receives positive marks from some researchers who study technical education, such as Quinn Burke. He says the fully subsidized in-person instruction exceeds the quality of many coding bootcamps, which have proliferated over the past decade, sometimes leaving students with debt and limited skills.
But if the academy is open to everyone, it can complicate education and measuring success. One entire family was present together and at least two mothers came with their daughters. Students average in their 30s, ranging from 18-year-olds to, say, a grandfather in his 70s who wanted to develop a photo app for his grandchild, said Sarah Gretter, Michigan State's academy director.
