Apple extending free coding courses to . . .

​​​​AUSTIN – (This story was released prior to Hurricane Harvey.)

Apple Inc. is extending its free coding courses in partnership with Austin Community College.

Apple will welcome ACC to its App Development with Swift program, which provides a free year of instruction in Apple’s Swift programing language, including how to build apps.

ACC has more than 74,000 students spread across 11 campuses.

The program will come at a time when there are arguably too many open tech jobs in Austin and around the state. 

CEOs at all types of tech companies report finding skilled talent is their No. 1 problem.

Roughly 5,000 local tech companies employed more than 120,700 workers last year—5,400 more jobs than in 2013.

The unadjusted metro unemployment rate dropped to 3.2 percent last month, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas estimates that Austin’s adjusted unemployment rate is 2.8 percent.​