Academany (aka The Academy of Almost Anything) grew from the Fab Academy, which was developed to provide hands-on technical training in fab labs. Rather than the traditional educational model of bringing students to a central site, or the online model of students in front of individual screens, it is based on a distributed model: students gather in local learning workgroups in fab labs, with peers, mentors, and machines, and these are in turn connected in a global network with leading experts.
Fab Futures extends this model to 21st century vocational education, taken here to mean training in applicable skills that are in demand for employment and for addressing local needs. Rather than requiring a career choice in advance, Fab Futures offers all of them. It is organized as a never-ending series of one month surveys, each leading to an introductory certificate, which can in turn be combined in a one year diploma program. Each monthly cycle begins with a survey of the field, which is followed by an introduction to the tools that will be used, then group demonstration projects, and finally a personal project. Based on demand, selected one-month units may also be expanded into new Academany programs.