Core
Robotics
Line followers, robot arms, drones. Each build goes into a portfolio a Robocoder can use for the next stage, from college to university.
What a franchisee
receives
Renting a unit and buying laptops takes about a fortnight. The rest of it took us years: a curriculum a child will still want in year three, accreditation from a chartered institute, and Mentors who can actually teach it. That is what you are licensing.
Nineteen courses across six disciplines
Written, tested and taught every week in our own centres. Each course has lesson plans, resources, a build, an assessment and a place on the progression ladder. Robocoders earn Skill Badges as they go and move up a rank.
Core
Game development
Minecraft and redstone for the youngest, then Unity and Unreal for the ones ready to ship something real.
Elective
Artificial intelligence
Machine learning through projects rather than theory. Image classifiers, chatbots, and an honest look at what the models are doing.
Elective
Cyber security
Network safety, ethical hacking principles and defensive coding. Practical throughout, never abstract.
Elective
3D printing and mechanical engineering
Design, print, test, iterate. From a sketch to a working part the Robocoder engineered themselves.
Qualification
GCSE Computer Science
Eight modules aligned to the AQA specification, sat in your own exam centre. Two of our Robocoders passed it at eleven and twelve.
What students earn
Novelty gets a child through about a term. What keeps them past that is having something to show for it. Robocode is a BCS accredited centre, so Robocoders sit Level 1 and Level 2 with us, and a JCQ-registered exam centre, so the GCSE is sat in the same building they learned in rather than somewhere unfamiliar.
| BCS Level 1, Robotics Award | After Robotics Course 2 |
| BCS Level 2, Thinking as a Coder | After Robotics or Game Dev Course 4 |
| AQA GCSE Computer Science | Full specification |
| WJEC GCSE Electronics | Full specification |
The four awarding and regulating bodies behind those qualifications.
Four weeks before you open a door
Mentor Certification is not an induction video. It is four weeks with six pass-required assessments, two of them delivered on site at a working centre.
Set out for training: the Playbook, the brand guidelines, the prospectus, the Robocoder logbooks and the Assessment Workshop booklet.
Systems and operations
The learning platform, CRM, billing, booking, attendance, HR and reporting. Delivered remotely by the HQ systems team.
Teaching and curriculum
On site at a live centre. Curriculum delivery, Studio Lab standards, safeguarding, assessing a Robocoder, and running a Free Tech Assessment.
Management and finance
Financial management, milestone tracking, recruitment, the operations manual, HR and compliance.
Sales and marketing
On site. The assessment to enrolment pipeline, the CRM, brand compliance, school outreach and launch preparation.
Travel and accommodation for the HQ trainers during the on-site weeks is covered. So is access to the training team for your first ninety days of trading, which is when the questions actually start.
The rest of the package
Brand and identity
Full brand pack, signage specification, uniforms and print collateral. Robocode and PLAI Labs rights for the term.
The platform
Learning platform, CRM, bookings, attendance, billing and dashboards. One monthly fee covers all of it.
Centre design
PLAI Labs is our trademarked centre design. You get the room specifications, the equipment list and the build standard.
Safeguarding
Policies, DBS handling, audit-ready records and the standards an Ofsted-registered provider has to meet.
Ongoing support
Weekly check-ins at first, then quarterly business reviews, network webinars and an escalation route that reaches a person.
Launch marketing
Videographer, a managed 60 to 90 day campaign, and 200 qualified leads delivered into your pipeline.
Competition pathway
FIRST Tech Challenge entry, team registration and coaching support, with a route to the national and world finals.
Exam centre route
Support registering as a JCQ centre so you can run BCS and GCSE examinations on site.
