Apple announced on Monday the launch of its new program designed to address the technology industry's scarcity of women in executive and computer programming jobs.
The free two-week camp, which is to take place in January 2019, is now open for applications from app-driven businesses, which must be female-founded, co-founded or led and have at least one woman on the development team, Apple said.
Once accepted, Apple will give each company the opportunity to send three attendees to its headquarters at Cupertino, California for the 14-day immersive program, where they will be offered one-on-one code-level instruction from Apple engineers, as well as sessions on design, technology, and App Store marketing.
Like other major tech companies, Apple has been trying to lessen its dependence on men in high-paying programming jobs. Women filled just 23 percent of Apple's technology jobs in 2017, according to the company's latest breakdown. That's only a slight improvement from 20 percent in 2014, despite the company's pledge to diversify its workforce.
Apple announced on Monday the launch of its first initiative to boost support for women entrepreneurs through Entrepreneur Camp, a technology lab that focused on app development. /VCG Photo
The idea behind the new camp is to keep women interested and immersed in the field, said Esther Hare, Apple's senior director of world developer marketing.
Apple's training camp is "a great step forward," said Lorraine Hariton, CEO of Catalyst, a group that fights for equal rights for women workers. "There a lot of talented women in technology. Hopefully, this helps set a tone for the entire industry."
But it's not clear how much of a dent Apple's new program will make. Google also offers training for girls and women pursuing careers in technology, but its program hasn't done much to diversify the workforce so far. Women were hired for nearly 25 percent of Google's technology jobs in 2017, up from nearly 21 percent in 2014, according to the company.
Apple and other technology companies maintain that one of the main reasons so many men are on their payrolls is that women traditionally haven't specialized in the mathematical and science curriculum needed to program.
But industry critics have accused the technology companies of discriminating against women through a male-dominated hierarchy that has ruled the industry for decades.
(Top image via VCG)