FEATURE: ALTERNATIVE PROVISION
Alternative Provision that leads to employment, not just reintegration
performance and fashion business start-ups via dedicated centres across the UK and online. They teach specialist skills and qualifications but, equally importantly, create comfortable working environments to meet the needs of neurodiverse trainees.
Player Ready focuses on games development and building digital and technological skills. They have five centres which originally catered for children wanting to learn coding but had to change tack during lockdown. As they explored online delivery, they moved into AP which is now a major part of their work.
E
ducation journalist Sal McKeown takes a look at two standout examples of Alternative Provision which not only work with schools but also provide a path towards employment.
Alternative Provision is often set up to deliver the national curriculum outside school, with the aim of helping children to reintegrate at some stage in the future. But this is not necessarily the destination of choice for every family. This month we are looking at two very different examples of AP that have worked with schools but also provided a route into employment.
Enemy of Boredom (EOB) Academy re-engages young people aged 12-25 through creative, technology-based programmes. The company currently offers video games, design, music
Alternative Provision measures success in many ways: improved attendance, better wellbeing, increased confidence and ability to work with others and destinations. However, for many settings GCSEs and SATs results are paramount. These two companies are different. Partly it is because their cohorts have a wider age range. Player Ready’s youngest member is seven, while EOB Academy has learners from the ages of 12-25. The aim is not so much preparation for working life but a supported taste of the real thing.
Enemy of Boredom Academy
EOB Academy has three face to face locations in Bristol, Berkshire and Hertfordshire, with a new Manchester venue opening in February 2026. The settings are calm and professional. Steven Godwin, CEO of the EOB Academy, says: ‘If you’re doing games design, it looks like a games design studio. If you’re doing music, it looks like a professional music studio. If you’re doing fashion, it looks like a fashion workshop.’ They also spend time making sure the environment is right for the learners, with plants and appropriate lighting, because: ‘Once the environment’s right, it allows
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www.education-today.co.uk January 2026
the mind to open up and you get good work out of the young people as well.’
Steven has worked for over 25 years creating programmes and commercial opportunities for what he describes as: ‘young people who don’t fit into the school system.’ One of his early successes was to get young people buddying with journalists to create a magazine. The income came via advertising revenue and 30,000 copies a month were distributed outside Tube stations. Since then, he has worked with agoraphobic young people who often have undiagnosed issues such as autism or ADHD. Some are in their 20s and out of work.
‘The stats show only one in five or one in eight autistic young people who actually have meaningful careers,’ says Steven. He has used his commercial knowledge to create outlets for EOB Academy students. ‘It’s just about making everything as real as possible for young people who need to see the path ahead if they are to engage.’ EOB Academy has soft launched its own online shop, so the fashion students can produce
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