DreamSpace Academy
Co-Creating The Dreams
A non-profit social enterprise in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Since 2018 it has helped young people and communities learn, make, and turn ideas into work that solves local problems.
What the academy does
From curiosity to change
Learn a skill by making something. Use it on a real problem close to home. Then get the support to grow what works.
What the academy does
From curiosity to change
Learn a skill by making something. Use it on a real problem close to home. Then get the support to grow what works.
Education
Teaching and learning. Teaching in schools, at partner sites, online and at the academy: making, robotics and electronics, software and AI, media, business and entrepreneurship, and courses for teachers.
Programmes and domains
Innovation
Solving local problems. Labs where young people take on real problems in their own communities. They build prototypes and test them with the people who will use them. The academy also runs research of its own.
Labs and research
Entrepreneurship
Turning ideas into work. Support for people who want to turn a tested idea into a venture: bootcamps, the DreamShot Startup Challenge, mentors, introductions and incubation.
Ventures and incubation
How learners grow
The Changemaker Journey
The Changemaker Journey describes how learners in the STEAM programmes grow, from trying things out for the first time to making a difference in a community. Each stage names what the work is for.
How far someone has gone in one subject is tracked separately, by the levels of a course. A level belongs to the course, never to the person.
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Explorer
“What can I do?”
Try tools and ideas for the first time, with someone there to guide.
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Maker
“Can I make something?”
Build solid skill in one chosen subject through longer projects that are assessed.
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Innovator
“Can I make it better?”
Use those skills on a real problem from outside the classroom, one with no set answer.
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Changemaker
“Can I make a difference?”
Turn work that has been tested into a lasting contribution to a community.
The STEAM programmes are one part of what DreamSpace Academy teaches. The academy also runs business and entrepreneurship training, digital security and media literacy training, and training for teachers and people already at work. What the academy teaches.
The Changemaker Journey in full
Running now
Empowerment Inside School
Practical ICT, robotics and STEAM learning inside government schools, from Grade 6 to Grade 11. It began in Batticaloa in July 2025 and now runs in Batticaloa, Kantale and Hatton.
- Active schools
- 18
- Enrolled students
- 902
- Recorded sessions
- 131
Figures for March to August 2026, from the programme's progress update of 11 October 2026.
In six Batticaloa schools, ICT marks now appear on students' official progress reports, for the first time since the subject entered the curriculum in 2015.
About the programmeThe education standard
How learning is checked
A course is completed by showing evidence of what was learned, checked against a published standard. Turning up is not enough. Where someone starts depends on what they can already show, so skills learned anywhere count.
In the STEAM programmes, a stage says what the work is for. Stages have names, not numbers. A level says how deep someone has gone in one subject, and it belongs to a course rather than to a person. The teaching approach explains each of these.
Constructionism, a theory of how people learn, makes the case for learning by building things other people can see and use[1, 4]. Reviews that pool a large body of studies find that makerspaces support creativity[24, 25]. Assessing what learners make is also an established practice, with a record of use elsewhere[21]. The reference library lists every source this site draws on.
Innovation & enterprise
Research, entrepreneurship and business skills taught from the first stage rather than added at the end.
Learn, Make, Solve, Earn: what the evidence shows
Research on learning by making gives good evidence for the first three: Learn, Make and Solve. It does not for Earn, the step from skills to income. So the academy treats Earn as a hypothesis, something to measure, and does not claim it as a result.
The MakerSpace
MakerSpace by DreamSpace Academy
MakerSpace by DreamSpace Academy is a community makerspace that local partners can set up in their own area, as a social franchise. The local partner provides the space. DreamSpace Academy provides the design of the unit, the brand, the operating standard (the rules it is run by) and a licence to run the academy's programmes there.
The programmes do not need a MakerSpace. They also run in schools, at partner sites and online.
The purpose
To put the capability to solve local challenges into local hands, and the conditions that keep it there.
Mission
Co-creating with underserved communities the capability to keep solving their own challenges, through education, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Vision
Communities solving their own challenges.
The goal: one hundred local challenges solved by local people, by 2050. Progress toward the goal will be counted against a published definition of a solved local challenge, not against the number of workshops delivered.
Taking part
How to join, visit or work with the academy
What is running changes often, and so do places, dates, the teaching language, fees or funded places, and access arrangements. Ask DreamSpace Academy directly for the latest.
Learners and parents
Ask what is open now and what the placement check involves. That is a short check of what a learner can already do, to decide where they start. No prior qualification is needed. The FAQ answers other common questions.
Schools and community organisations
The academy runs its programmes together with schools and community groups. A partner that wants a space of its own can set up a MakerSpace. The page on replication explains what that involves on both sides.