Academy Nano
The final stage of Academy's application process. You'll learn valuable skills, build real products and experience life at Academy. A fully subsidised two-day experience in intensive learning, problem-solving and software delivery.
Write code
You’ll learn enough to complete a project in a programming language.
Build apps
You’ll work on a real-world interactive web app that you can share with others.
Learn skills
You’ll get training in skills for which courses routinely cost hundreds of dollars.
Why Academy Nano
Now, we've distilled the essence of this into an intensive two-day experience, on an invitation-only basis.
What's in it for you?
The decisions you make now affect your future opportunities.
Tech careers have an increasing monopoly over roles that are high-growth, high-impact, and high-reward.
Your past doesn’t define you.
In these two days, you can change your trajectory, diversify from legacy industries and define your future in tech.
What's in it for us?
We’re in the business of investing in exceptional talent.
We make a two-year commitment to training, coaching, and accelerating the most high-potential individuals.
Our success is tied to our Scholars’ success.
In these two days, we will make our final evaluation as to whether our Scholar Programme is the right environment and structure for you.
“In these two days, you can change your trajectory, diversify from legacy industries and define your future in tech.”
What to Expect
You've cleared the bar for entry to Academy Nano, which means we think you can handle it.
It's a two-day, full-time commitment of intensive learning and active building
How it works
Academy Nano is run in a similar way to our Scholar Programme.
Full-time, so that you can learn the most intensively in these two days. You make a rough 8.30am-5.30pm commitment (with breaks).
Collaboration-focused, using common agile practices from tech teams. You’ll work mostly in teams (with some individual work).
Remote-first, in keeping with modern ways of working. You only need a laptop, webcam and internet connection.
Claiming your spot
Academy Nano runs as a two-day, full-time remote programme.
To claim your spot, you:
- Must confirm your availability for the date(s) communicated with you.
- Should complete ~1-2 hours of preparatory work.
What will I learn?
Fundamentals of Programming
Individually, you’ll complete a series of block-based coding challenges using fundamental concepts in programming that will serve you well in any language that you use in future.
We’ll be using block programming that is very similar to Scratch: a popular first programming language.
Some things that you’ll learn:
- Control flow in programming: if/else, for loops and while loops.
- Programming with variables: naming, reading and updating them.
- Test-driven programming: specifying the behaviour of code through automated tests.
Building Software Products
In a team, you’ll build a live product using ideas from software engineering that are applied in modern teams and technologies.
We’ll be using Bubble: a ‘no code’ visual programming tool.
Some things that you’ll learn:
- Working in a tech team: Kanban board, acceptance criteria, agile workflow.
- Front-end user interactions: building a dynamic UI that responds to the user.
- Back-end database queries: CRUD operations — creating, reading, updating and deleting.
What Happens Next?
Lifetime Membership
To Academy’s community of high-potential talent in technology.
Practical Skills To Build
Your own side projects, startup ideas.
Suggested further learning
To progress in your technical understanding.
After you've completed Academy Nano, we will also make our final decision on whether to extend you an offer for our Scholar Programme.
How do I prepare for Academy Nano
You will get the most out of these two days if you are able to complete 1-2 hours of preparatory work on Bubble.
Bubble is the ‘no-code’ visual programming tool that you will use in the Building Software Products module.
They have guided, interactive lessons which they estimate at about 1 hour (but which we think might take up to 2 hours).
If you complete all of Bubble’s introductory lessons, you will be in a good position for the Building Software Products module.
Why do we use block-based programming?
A lot of important programming concepts can be learned through block-based (e.g. conditional logic, looping, variables) which directly support the acquisition of later programming languages.
For example, block-based programming with Scratch is used to explore the fundamentals of Harvard’s (very famous and popular) CS50: Introduction to Computer Science course.
We think that block-based learning is a great pick for Nano because it:
1. Doesn’t require any prior knowledge of computer science or software engineering.
2. Makes it quicker to start seeing and interacting with your programming logic.
3. Helps the focus be on problem-solving rather than coding syntax.
Why do we use Bubble?
Bubble offers a nice visual drag-and-drop layer on top of programming logic, making it easier to start building apps.
A product team might prototype something using a tool like Bubble for speed, before building it for more customisability and flexibility with conventional programming languages.
We think that Bubble is a great pick for Nano because it:
1. Doesn’t require any prior knowledge of computer science or software engineering
2. Makes it quicker to start seeing and interacting with the product you are building
3. Has a good ecosystem of learning resources around it