Apple is expanding its coding partnership with historically black colleges and universities as big tech firms faceincreased scrutiny surrounding diversity and inclusion.

The iPhone giantsaid Thursday that it's adding 10 more HBCUsto its year-old community education programmeant to create opportunities for people seeking to learn coding skills. The announcement comes a month after the company launched a racial equality initiative aimed at communities of color.

Under the expansion into more HBCUs, Apple will give an increasing number of people of color"the building blocks of coding," the company said in a press release. Coding is the infrastructure that makes digital technologies operate, andmore Black programmers put more Black people in the running forin-demand, high-paying jobs tech jobs.

Morehouse College in Georgia,Tougaloo College in Mississippi, Dillard University in Louisiana and Prairie View A&M University in Texas are among Apple's roster of partnership schools.

Apples Community Education Initiative extends to 12 HBCUs across the US.(Photo: Apple)

Of the 24 locations listed in Apple's Community Education initiative, 12 are HBCUs, which were generally established in the 1800s to serve the needs of the Black community toward the end ofslavery for the decades that followed.

'Keep this energy up': Black-owned businesses see surge of interest amid racism protests

'Things must change': Apple launches $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative

Later in July, educators from 10 HBCUs will take part in a virtual academy to learn the building blocks of coding with Swift, Apples coding language.(Photo: Apple)

It's clear that tech giants, including Apple, have a diversity problem.

Many companies, including Facebook and Google, have faced increasing backlash over lackluster minority representation, especially at a time when many firms are declaring to be allies in the Black Lives Matter movement.

While Black people make up roughly 13% of the population, representation at tech firms is minuscule.

From 2013 to 2018, Facebook failed to meaningfully increase the number of employees from underrepresented groups in its U.S. workforce, aUSA TODAY analysis shows.The number of Black employees rose from 1% toroughly 3.7%.

In 2012 at Google, African Americansmade up roughly1.5% of U.S. employees. In 2018, the most recent figures available for Google parent company Alphabet, its workforce was 2.6%Black.

Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that said his company "must do more" to fight racism and promote diversity.

In aletter on Apple's website, Cook vowed to bring more technology to underserved school systems and addressinclusion and diversity within its ranks.

"To create change, we have to reexamine our own views and actions in light of a pain that is deeply felt but too often ignored," Cook wrote. "Issues of human dignity will not abide standing on the sidelines. To the Black community we see you. You matter and your lives matter."

Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/07/16/apple-expands-hbcu-partnership-tech-grapples-lack-diversity/5449823002/

Read the rest here:

Apple expands coding partnership with Black schools as tech firms grapple with lack of diversity - USA TODAY