Apple has followed up its in-person Manufacturing Academy with a new program that sees its small- and medium-sized business training go online.

Back in July 2025, Apple announced its first Apple Manufacturing Academy would open in Detroit. It was part of Apple's existing $500 billion investment in US businesses, and the first attendees praised the company for the quality of its training.

Now that two-day in-person academy has been retooled to be an ongoing, online program for firms across the States.

"At Apple, we believe in the power of American ingenuity," Sabih Khan, Apple's chief operating officer, said in a statement, "and we're proud to be delivering even more options to support small- and medium-sized companies across the country."

"By bringing the Apple Manufacturing Academy curriculum online, we're opening the door for even more businesses and workers to build cutting-edge expertise," continued Kahn, "helping fuel U.S. competitiveness and support the growth of advanced manufacturing nationwide."

The new training course is available for enrolment now on a site made in partnership between Apple and Michigan State University. The same site also has details for forthcoming in-person sessions in Detroit from January 2026.

According to Apple, the online training will continue to be expanded, but at first focuses on:

  • Advanced manufacturing
  • Automation
  • Predictive maintenance
  • Quality control optimization
  • Machine learning

Alongside the specific manufacturing tutorials, Apple says that students will be taught communication and presentation skills.

How Apple got here

Even as Apple announced the original in-person manufacturing academy in Detroit, it committed to launching a virtual one by the end of 2025. It is part of Apple's long-standing investment in US firms, but it has also been prompted by pressures to bring its manufacturing back to the States.

It is not physically possible for Apple to produce the iPhone in the US, despite repeated demands for it to do so — and even with Tim Cook saying he wanted to. That pressure has come chiefly from the current administration, but even Trump has now seemingly accepted this.

The reason is that there is no longer the infrastructure in needed in the US for such manufacturing — and not enough skilled labor. Any actual ambition to return manufacturing to the States has to start with mass education and training.

Apple is only one company, and it is only offering the limited in-person academy and now the virtual one. But it is a start.