USC to launch Apple iOS coding certifications for students, residents across S.C.
November 22, 2022
The University of South Carolina, in partnership with Apple Inc., is launching a free coding certification course in the Spring 2023 semester to teach Apple’s iOS language to students in the USC system and to community members across South Carolina.
The course, which teaches Apple’s Swift programming language, will be delivered through the iCarolina Community Learning Lab network. The iCarolina labs were established in 2021 through a $6 million grant award from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEERs) fund.
The lab network – with current locations in Union, Lancaster, Sumter, Allendale, Walterboro, and with a future location in Laurens– is open for use by local school districts, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the South Carolina Technical College System, and community residents. The lab locations provide reliable technology and internet access to the communities surrounding USC Palmetto College campuses, which are all located within 15 miles or less of a broadband desert. A location at USC Columbia will provide training and instructional support to the network.
Swift is an enterprise programming language that is friendly to beginners. It was created by Apple for building apps for iOS, Apple TV, Mac and Apple Watch. Swift is a flexible programming language that allows developers to easily operationalize their ideas with incredible speed. As part of the partnership, Apple has provided the curriculum and “train-the-trainer” courses, as well as project management and engineering services to assist with the rollout.
The pilot course, led by Noble Anumbe, a post-doctoral fellow in USC’s College of Engineering and Computing, will begin in January 2023 and will meet once a week for about three months at no cost. Participants will earn a certification for application development with Swift, which is certified and administered by Certiport, the leading provider of certification exam development, delivery, and program management services worldwide.
“This free certification course is a wonderful example of how the university is partnering with leading industries and the state of South Carolina to give students and residents of underserved areas the skills they need to be more competitive,” said USC President Michael Amiridis.
The iCarolina lab network will offer other Apple-related content in the future, covering everything from computer literacy to Apple IT, Deployment, and Help Desk certifications. USC also plans to add additional industry certification courses in the future, covering artificial intelligence and cyber security by leveraging existing partnerships with IBM, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Siemens.
Registration for the Swift course will open in December. For more information about USC’s industry partnerships, visit the Office of Economic Engagement site.
