Australian mobile app developer Appster has teamed up with a Tasmanian high school to create a new course which teaches kids to create apps.
Chris Deeley, the school’s head of ICT, approached several app development companies last year when he began designing the course. Shortly thereafter, web and app development start-up company, Appster, offered to help Deeley.
New Town High School says the app development program - the first of its kind in Australia - will allow the school’s students to participate in a growing area of the digital economy by creating, marketing and publishing their own apps.
Deeley told the Mercury that he is hopeful that the “trial free courses” will be a success.
“As far as I’m aware this is the first partnership of its kind in Australia,” Deeley said.
“The sky’s the limit in terms of what they [students] can do with this.”
Last year, more than 10 organisations, including StartupAus and the Australian Computer Society, called upon the Government to introduce coding classes from foundation primary levels through to Year 10.
Appster co-executive, Josiah Humphreys, said that such classes, like the one being rolled out at New Town High School, could help students get a job in the tech sector.
“Being a part of this project means we get to make an impact on the future of so many and help them prepare for a world which every year is becoming increasingly technology reliant,” Humphreys said.
“We believe this course will give students an upper hand in securing a job; a job which may not even exist as yet.”
Deeley says that given the expansion of the ICT industry, he is excited that students are a part of what he says is a “large part of the digital economy”.
“I see ICT as an area that is continually changing and growing, so I am very excited to be giving our students the opportunity to engage in an area which is such a large part of the digital economy.
“There is quite a buzz around school over this course and my classes are completely full. This is essentially a trial course and the school will evaluate its success at the end of the year to see if we will continue to run it.”