NEW YORK: Apple has announced a $50m donation to help improve diversity in the science and technology fields.
The company revealed on Tuesday that it would be pledging the cash to a group of charities aiming to train women, minorities, and military veterans for careers in the information technology sector.
“We wanted to create opportunities for minority candidates to get their first job at Apple,” Apple head of human resources Denise Young Smith said in an interview with Fortune.
“There is tremendous upside to that and we are dogged about the fact that we can’t innovate without being diverse and inclusive.”
Apple, like much of Silicon Valley, currently staffs its ranks with a largely homogeneous group of white and Asian male workers, particularly in its high-paying engineering and management positions.
Last year, CEO Tim Cook said that he was “not satisfied” with the lack of diversity at his company and vowed to do more to bring more women and minority groups into Apple’s corporate ranks.
