Facebook And Apps For Good Team Up To Offer Young Londoners A Course To Build Social Applications

Online, September 23, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Facebook and Apps for Good have teamed up to offer young, unemployed 16-25 year olds from across London the chance to learn how to design, code and build social applications via a unique new training course.

The course, which will be delivered by Apps for Good, has been developed and designed by Techlightenment, an Experian company that develops social media social technology. This latest course is designed to offer young people the chance to learn how to build Facebook applications which have a positive social impact on their life and others around them.

Applications are now being sought for the first scheme, which will run for six weeks from October 17th 2011 at the A4e Brixton Vox ( http://www.facebook.com/brixtonvox ), a dedicated vocational training centre for young people who are unemployed or out of education.

The course will be taught by some of the UK's leading Technology names and attendees can expect to learn the basics of web development like HTML 5 as well as more advanced coding such as PHP for more complex apps and SQL for databases. Participants will be guided through how to design, create, test, release, evaluate and maintain their own Facebook application before presenting their social applications to industry experts during a graduation ceremony in November.

Previous experience in coding is not necessary but applicants will need to demonstrate that they are passionate about using social media to solve social problems and ideally have some basic html knowledge. If you would like to know more about how to take part in scheme please visit: www.facebook.com/brixtonvox
Richard Allan, Director of Policy of Facebook in Europe said: "Facebook is proud to work with Apps for Good to create a course which has the potential to help young people improve their entrepreneurial skills, employability and technological understanding while building tools, apps and services that could transform the society we live in'

Iris Lapinski, CEO of Apps for Good said 'We are very excited about the Apps for Good partnership with Facebook which goes right to the heart of how young people use technology today. The course will allow them to create Facebook applications that address social and community problems they are passionate about in a truly bottom-up way.'

Gi Fernando, CEO and co-founder of Techlightenment said:

"The framework that Apps for Good creates will provide young people with the skills to build social media applications and develop their overall business acumen, giving them a head start in whatever their career aspirations may be."

Tom Godfrey, Partnerships Director at A4e ( http://www.mya4e.com ) said: "The A4e Brixton VOX is an ideal setting for the Facebook-Apps For Good course, as we are dedicated to supporting young people into employability through vocational skills training. We look forward to seeing the positive impact creating social applications will have on both the students themselves and their wider communities.

Over the coming months the details of the 'Facebook/Apps for Good' course will be made available to developers and educators across the globe, via the Apps for Good online platform to enable the scheme to be replicated across the world.

Facebook and Techlightenment will also join the Apps for Goods expert community along side a range of technology companies such as Dell and Thomson Reuters, helping young people on the Apps for Good courses across the UK with their app ideas.

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