Progress is offering a free development toolkit to help developers build next-generation business apps. The new solution will be offered as a classroom edition of the company’s OpenEdge Developer Kit, a platform designed to simplify and streamline the development, integration and management of business applications.

According to Progress, the OpenEdge Developer Kit: Classroom Edition was developed out of the need for more mobile application developers. The classroom offering will provide developers with a variety of free and easy-to-use downloadable tools for securely creating business apps for any device and for the cloud.

(Related: Progress unveils custom analytics platform for operational data)

“For more than 30 years, Progress has enabled application developers to harness the latest technology to turn their big ideas into business reality,” said Jerry Rulli, COO at Progress. “With the release of the Classroom Edition of the OpenEdge Developer Kit, our goal is to continue to inspire the next generation of developer ‘entrepreneurs.’ This free offering provides today’s students with the opportunity to become tomorrow’s leaders by giving them unique access to the most innovative, enterprise-class development tools available, including Progress OpenEdge.”

In addition, Progress will be providing other education offerings to help grow the mobile development community, such as boot camps and seminars.