Apple Stores Turn Into Education Centres With 'Today at Apple' Program

Apple Stores have a reputation for excellence, but the company has some large scale plans in mind to bring a major redesign. The company plans to make changes that would have people just spending time at the store, as if the location was a figurative town square. At the same time, it will focus on educating people in a number of different topics such as photography, video, music, coding, art and design, and more.

These sessions, collectively called "Today at Apple" will be led by trained team members, to encourage engagement with the brand. All the sessions will be free, and many will be taught by new employees called Creative Pros, which Apple described in its announcement as the liberal arts equivalent to Apple's Geniuses. Apple says that the Creative Pros are experts in the arts, trained to pass their knowledge on to Apple users.

"'Today at Apple' is one of the ways we're evolving our experience to better serve local customers and entrepreneurs," said Angela Ahrendts, Apple's Senior Vice President of Retail (and former CEO of Burberry). "We're creating a modern-day town square, where everyone is welcome in a space where the best of Apple comes together to connect with one another, discover a new passion, or take their skill to the next level. We think it will be a fun and enlightening experience for everyone who joins."

The free sessions will focus on the features of Apple products - so for example, an iPhone user interested in photography can take part in six how-to sessions that cover shooting, organising, editing, and so on.

According to the announcement, Apple will also offer special programs for families and educators, and teachers can learn to "incorporate technology in their classrooms". That technology here means Apple products should be taken as a safe assumption.

The program will launch worldwide, with sessions in every store. According to Apple, this will also involve a major redesign of the physical stores, with Forum Displays - mobile screens created by Apple's design team - will be used for Today at Apple sessions, and the seating and sound setup in the stores will also be updated to accommodate the sessions.