Starting December 1st, you can learn a bit of code for free at your local Apple Store. The retailer’s annual ‘Hour of Code’ event runs December 1 to the 14th.
In order to take advantage, you’ll need to sign up for an hour on Apple’s website. The sessions are available for people of all ages, and there are also ‘Kids Hour’ sessions for children ages six to 12.
What’s offered will vary from store to store.
You can see what’s available on your local store’s page on Apple’s website. My store, for instance, is offering a course on how to get started coding as well as one for coding with Swift Playgrounds, and there are also a few options for learning how to code robots. For kids, there’s an option to do a Sphere Maze Challenge.
In the case of San Francisco where we have a number of local Apple stores, it lists all the courses that are a reasonable distance from me, not just the ones at the specific store I chose. If you find one you like, you just click on it to start the signup process (you need to sign up to attend).
You’re definitely not going to walk out of any of these classes ready to start your own app company, but if you’ve been toying around with giving coding a try, this could be a nice (free) way to get your feet wet.