# The Academy — theacademy.ie

> The Academy is a cohort-based programme where members ship real work on a real Irish website under a mentor, and graduate with a public, verifiable reference letter hosted at builtinireland.ie. Free for members. One cohort at a time.

## Parent / related sites
- Built In Ireland (https://builtinireland.ie/) — parent brand; hosts the reference letters
- Raven Design (https://ravendesign.ie/) — publishing partner; co-signs references

## Current cohort (May 2026)
- Cohort 1 — County Carlow on localnews.ie
- Mentor: Kali (founder of Built In Ireland)
- Duration: 4 weeks
- Slots: 8–10 across six roles (sources researcher, entity researcher, content writers, vibe coder, designer, SEO + analyst, QA + coordinator)
- Status: OPEN for signups. Kickoff when ≥8 members are confirmed (not a fixed date).
- Cost: Free

## Tracks
- Vibe Coding — Cursor + GitHub + Vercel, for absolute beginners
- Editorial SEO — research-led Irish editorial writing that ranks
- Civic Tech — scrape Irish public portals, structure the output, feed live news network
- Directory Data — verify and structure data on Irish directory sites

## Reference criteria
- 4 shipped issues over 4 weeks
- 4 weekly check-ins attended
- Mentor sign-off
- 2-paragraph self-reflection

## Apply
- Email hello@theacademy.ie or visit https://theacademy.ie/apply/

## Key URLs
- Homepage: https://theacademy.ie/
- Cohorts: https://theacademy.ie/cohorts/
- Cohort 1 detail: https://theacademy.ie/cohorts/cohort-1/
- Syllabus: https://theacademy.ie/syllabus/
- Mentors: https://theacademy.ie/mentors/
- Apply: https://theacademy.ie/apply/
- About: https://theacademy.ie/about/
- About AI usage: https://theacademy.ie/about-ai/
- Graduates: https://theacademy.ie/graduates/

## Contact
hello@theacademy.ie