To apply, you need no particular experience or knowledge, and you don’t need to be committed to a career in the built environment. If you have an interest in how places are designed or built, geography, art, design or being creative, the Academy could be for you.
When do I apply?
- PLACED Academy Foundations: A two-day programme for young people in years 7, 8 & 9 from the Northwest to introduce the built environment and offer participants a taster of PLACED Academy Foundations. Packed with creative activities, they introduce participants to careers in the sector, develop skills, and build confidence. We usually open applications in later half of the year before Christmas, with the programme running over February half-term.
- PLACED Academy Studio: We recruit for our annual ten-month PLACED Academy in spring for a programme start in late July. The programme is open to young people aged 14-18 from across the Northwest, with workshops mainly based in Liverpool and Manchester.
- PLACED Partnership Academies: Our Partnership Academies are delivered throughout the year, when funding is available. These typically focus on recruiting from a particular neighbourhood, or local authority. This means recruitment may be more targeted. Typically, these will be open to 14-18 year olds.
- PLACED Academy Alumni: PLACED Academy Alumni offers ongoing support to Academy graduates as they embark on the next stage of their journey. Participants who have recently graduated will be emailed information about the Alumni as they come to a close in their programme.
- PLACED Future Designers Competition: Our free to access competition for Liverpool opens in Autumn and is open to students in year 7-11. We will host an optional, free workshop during the October half-term to support the development of drawing and modelling skills as share more about the competition. Submissions are due in January, with the Awards Evening in February.
Details of all programmes can be found on the associated link on the PLACED Academy Programmes dropdown.
We will update this website when we are recruiting, and will also share information across all our social media platforms. If you would like to be notified directly when we are receiving applications you can sign up to our mailing list here.
How will we select participants?
We are passionate about supporting diversity in the built environment, and we look to recruit a balanced cohorts of young people. This will include applicants from schools and areas from across the region, with a wide mix of interests, from different year groups, and from different ethic backgrounds. We will select participants based on their application form. There is no need to worry if you don’t know anyone on the programme – one of the great benefits is making new friends!
Some Partnership Academies may have more specific priority groups. If this is the case, this will be made clear on the application form. Not everyone who applies will be offered a place as numbers are limited, but we will endeavour to offer as many places as is possible.
What will I get out of it?
Our Academy participants have told us about the benefits they have taken from the programme. Below are just some of these:
- Growing in confidence
- Getting comfortable working with new people
- Collaboration skills
- Increased knowledge of career options and routes
- Learning skills to help you in school, college and university
- Learning directly from professionals
- Communication skills
- Developing your self-belief to know that your view matters
Our ambition is to expose participants to new ways of working, learning and collaborating. You will not be assessed in a formal way: this is not what success looks like in the Academy. Instead, we will help you to develop new skills, gain new friends and experiences, and help you to feel confident about your next steps, whatever they may be.
“It gave me a good idea of different jobs I may want to do whereas before I had no idea.”
ISG Partnership Academy Participant