Accelerate
What is Accelerate?
Accelerate is Open City's free, pioneering, built environment education programme for young people from underrepresented backgrounds.
Through a series of skills development workshops and professional mentoring, the programme supports young people aged 16-18 to explore careers in architecture, landscape, planning, engineering, and related fields, equipping them with the skills, portfolios, networks, and confidence to make informed progression choices.
What does it include?
10 skills development workshops
The course includes 10 skills development workshops on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm, between October 2025 and April 2026.
Mentoring sessions with a built environment professional
Students are put in groups and allocated to a London-based built environment professional practice for a series of mentoring sessions. Your mentor could be an architect, engineer, landscape architects, or a specialist of another kind. This experience is designed to give you first-hand experience of the range of jobs and roles available across the built environment sector.
Course Timeline
April 2025 - Applications open
Mid September 2025 - Applications close
October 2025 - Course Starts
April 2026 - Course Finishes
July 2026 - Summer Exhibition
What skills will you develop?
Sketching and drawing
Model making with a range of media
Casting
Site observation and surveying
Public speaking
If you would like to join our 2025/26 course (starting in October 2025) send us your application now!
What does Accelerate include?
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Creative Workshops
Each workshop includes a set of activities designed to help young people build their arts based portfolio. Over the course of the 10 workshops students engage in craft exercises including cardboard model making, plaster casting and printing. If you have never done it before, this is the perfect opportunity to learn!
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Site Visits
Workshops will take place at special locations across London and aim to provide young people with design skills they can utilise in their further education, setting them up with opportunities for their future careers.
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University Visits
Workshops include visits to the campuses of our university partners, where you will learn about the courses they offer and the experiences of the students currently studying there. These days will also include a campus tour and the opportunity to ask questions throughout the day.
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Professional Mentoring
During the February half-term, we match our Accelerate students with practices across London to partake in three days of work experience where they learn design skills, understand industry networks and gain the confidence to make informed career choices.
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Accelerate Summer Exhibition
The Summer exhibition takes place at the end of your time with, in the first or second week of July, and is a fantastic celebration of the hard work you have dedicated to the course throughout the year.
Each student curates their own work and will have a dedicated space in which to exhibit it for friends and family to see. It’s an opportunity to meet the other students on the course from other campuses and across London; to network with people in the industry and take a step back and reflect on the experience brought to you by the programme.
“ I really enjoyed the Accelerate programme due to its creative and friendly atmosphere which I found myself easily immersed in. Over the course of the10 workshops, I learnt valuable skills such as quick sketching, making models to scale and experimenting with materials. This helped me to develop the mindset of an architect which I can use in the workplace further down the line. ”
Levi,
Accelerate Student 2024/25
Our Mission
To provide young people from under-represented backgrounds with the opportunity to explore professions in the built environment sector, so they can develop the skills and knowledge to participate and make informed and supported future choices.
Gallery
Past Accelerate Summer Exhibitions
Our Sponsors
Host Universities
Our Mentors
