Foundation · £499 · 6 weeks

From no prior experience to a deployed full-stack application in six weeks.

The entry-level paid rung of the Aperintel AI Academy. Three hours of live instruction per week plus eight to ten hours of asynchronous work. Cohorts capped at twenty-five students. The goal is a graduate who can hold an architectural conversation, scaffold a working application with an AI partner, read code they did not write, and deploy something simple to production.

Enrol · £499 Try the £29 taster first
Format Mon/Wed 19:00 UK or weekends
Cohort size Capped at 25
Time commitment 12-15 hours per week
Who Foundation is for

Beginners and self-taught developers.

Foundation assumes no prior coding experience. Most cohorts include people switching careers from non-technical backgrounds, self-taught developers wanting structure, working engineers who want to formalise their AI-assisted workflow, and founders building their own first product.

If you can write a clear paragraph of English, you can complete Foundation. If you already ship production software, the AI Native Engineer Track is the more honest starting point.

Curriculum

Six weeks, six themes.

Week 1 · How software actually works

The mental model most beginners are missing. What a computer is doing when it runs a program. What "the cloud" actually is. What a server is, what a client is, what a database is. The difference between writing code, running code, and deploying code.

Week 2 · The AI partnership from day one

The Aperintel Prompting Protocol. The Personal Genome you build as your reusable AI context. How to recognise when the AI is wrong and what to do about it. The honour code on AI attribution. Other bootcamps make this Week 12; we make it Week 2.

Week 3 · Project scaffolding the right way

The first commit discipline: README, LICENSE, .gitignore, .env.example, folder structure. What an env file is and why secrets must never be in the repo. GitHub accounts, repositories, branches, commits, pull requests. The Aperintel Project Scaffolding Standard.

Week 4 · Data, APIs, and the shape of a system

What an API is and what an API key does. REST basics, JSON, the request-response cycle. Authentication basics. What a database table is and how to read and write to one with the AI doing most of the typing.

Week 5 · Shipping something real

Choosing a deployment target before the first line of code. Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, Railway. Domain registrars. Deploying your first full-stack application. What goes wrong on first deploy and how to debug it.

Week 6 · Telling the story of what you built

The portfolio README as an architectural decision record. LinkedIn profile for software engineers shipping with AI in the loop. The two-paragraph build story that hiring managers actually read. Capstone presentation in the final session.

Capstone deliverables

What every graduate leaves with.

  • One deployed full-stack application at a public URL
  • One CRUD API project
  • One configured prompt library
  • A working Personal Genome (your reusable AI context file)
  • A configured developer environment ready for the next track
  • An updated LinkedIn profile
  • A portfolio README that reads like an architectural decision record
Enrol

Reserve your seat in the next Foundation cohort.

Pay £499 in full now, or take the 25% deposit option and pay the balance before the cohort starts.

Cohort announcements and the welcome sequence go to this address.
Foundation Track £499.00

Secure payment via Stripe. Two-week refund window from cohort start.

FAQ

Foundation questions.

What if I have a full-time job?
Live sessions run on Monday or Wednesday at 19:00 UK to accommodate working students, or on Saturday at 10:00 or 17:00 UK, or Sunday at 14:00 UK. The specific weekly slot for your cohort is confirmed at enrolment. The asynchronous workload of eight to ten hours per week is designed for evenings and weekends.
What is the refund policy?
Full refund up to seven days before cohort start. 50% refund within the first two weeks of the cohort. No refund from Week 3 onwards. If Aperintel cancels a cohort, the full amount is refunded automatically.
What hardware and software do I need?
Any laptop running Windows, macOS, or Linux that can install Node.js and Python. A reliable internet connection capable of video calls. A free GitHub account, a free Vercel account, a free Supabase account. The complete setup list is sent two weeks before cohort start.
What comes after Foundation?
Roughly 40-60% of Foundation graduates continue into the AI Native Engineer Track. Some go directly to junior contract work or internal AI-adoption roles using the Foundation portfolio. The continuation is your decision; no pressure to enrol further if Foundation has done what you needed.