Students at Bournemouth University have been learning how to create their own mobile phone applications in workshops run by a local company.
Bournemouth-based web and app development company 3 Sided Cube has been running the evening workshops at BU’s Media School for the past six weeks.
In the sessions, students from across the university have all been working on creating a BBC News app, learning the basics of iOS development so that they can hopefully go away and work on their own ideas.
Phil Caudell, senior iOS developer at 3 Sided Cube, has been leading the weekly workshops.
He said: “People come in here not knowing anything about it and by the end of it, they can have an app that they could sell and make money on.
“The iPhone market is so new and changing so quickly that I think that having companies come in can give real world experience that hopefully rubs off on students so they can get an idea of what is happening out there.”
He added that the workshops were mutually beneficial, as the company were looking to potentially take on the new student developers as interns and staff.
“We were looking to expand and take on new people and finding developers is hard as it is new market, so there are not many people out there,” he said.
“We thought, if we can’t find people, let’s train people up and see what comes out of it.
“They have done really well with it, and we are hoping to take some of them on as interns.
“We ran the workshops last year as well – we were so impressed by one of the students that we actually hired him as a result.”
Patrick Guffui, a final year Bsc (Hons) Computing student, was one of around 25 students who chose to attend the free workshops.
He said: “It’s great that we are learning something very focused and technical.
“I have learnt a lot, and have a better understanding of how the mobile development process works. It’s definitely something I am interested in pursuing as a career.”