Apple is opening a dedicated iOS app Development Center in Italy, the company announced today, offering a curriculum designed to train the next generation of app developers. The center, to be located in Naples, will support teachers and offer a specialized curriculum provided by Apple itself and aims to give students practical skills that will help them make apps for the company's iOS devices. Apple says it also plans to expand this new program to other countries in the future.

Apple says it will also work with its partners in Italy to create "additional opportunities" for students, but details of what these opportunities entail are thin at the moment. Also limited are details of what the curriculum will entail, whether the students will receive any kind of official accreditation from Apple, how long study will take, or even which specific institution in Naples Apple is partnering with.

Apple plans to expand the program to other countries in the world

Much of the announcement focuses on Apple's positive impact on Italy, and Europe as a whole. "The phenomenal success of the App Store is one of the driving forces behind the more than 1.4 million jobs Apple has created in Europe," Tim Cook says in the accompanying press release, carrying on to state that the App Store "presents unlimited opportunities for people of all ages and businesses of all sizes across the continent."

Apple says the App Store has helped European developers earn over €10.2 billion ($11.1 billion) from their apps, and that in Italy alone, 75,000 jobs can be attributed to its existence. While Apple is likely keen to increase the amount of people who use and make things for its App Store every day, the timing of this news — and the reminder of how big Apple is in Europe — comes conspicuously soon after it was reported that Apple could owe more than $8 billion in back taxes for its European operations.