While the manufacturing academy won’t open its doors before 2028, Apple’s decision to open its academy echoes the national ambition. The World Bank has also turned its attention there.
What did Apple say about the academy? “The academy, which will invest in individuals and institutional knowledge, aims to increase the speed of innovation and adopt advanced technologies by supporting Türkiye’s production sector,” the company says. Courses will cover machine learning technology, predictive maintenance, advanced automation, and robotics, along with interactive workshops on operational and production efficiency.
What does Apple want?
Türkiye sits where Europe meets the Middle East and Asia, so is a great location to attract talent from all those locations, as well as being in a customs union with the EU. Apple’s intentions won’t be philanthropic; it’s most likely the company hopes to identify hot new talent from across the region, presumably tempting the best workers to join its ongoing effort to build manufacturing in the US. Apple knows it needs to cast an incredibly wide net to find the best possible talent to run the manufacturing facilities for the products it hopes to make in the next decade.