The Airwalk Reply Leadership and Programming Academies are run in partnership with Oldham Sixth Form College. Both programmes are led and delivered by Airwalk Reply staff, providing students from disadvantaged backgrounds with the skills that they need to become future leaders or start their programming journey. The Leadership Academy teaches the participants how to plan, lead and deliver large-scale projects, culminating in the students running their own social-action or community improvement projects in the local community. The students also achieve a formal certification as part of the course, the ILM Level 2 Award for Young Leaders. Contrastingly, the Programming Academy provides its students with an entry level course in Python Programming, followed by the opportunity to achieve accreditation by sitting the Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer (PCEP) examination.

Each academy works with a group of 10-15 pupils, with both cohort also benefiting from a series of workshops at Airwalk Reply's London offices, focussing on careers and higher education guidance. All of the Academy  members also receive 12 months of onward careers mentoring to support them in seeking the very best opportunities to prepare them to become outstanding graduates or apprentices. 

We founded the Airwalk Reply Academies as we recognise the importance of giving back to the communities in which we work; Oldham Sixth Form College sits close to our Manchester base. We want to give back to our local communities and also firmly understand the significance of developing talent from diverse backgrounds, so that they grow into our workforce of tomorrow.

Kudos to the whole team involved who has helped launch this incredible initiative.

Watch our video to meet some of our fantastic students from Oldham Sixth Form College.