DreamSpace Academy
Co-Creating The Dreams
DreamSpace Academy is a non-profit social enterprise that co-creates an ecosystem to tackle local socio-economic and environmental challenges through education, innovation and entrepreneurship. It was founded in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, in 2018. The academy publishes its whole model here, with a statement of how good the evidence is for each part.
Who it is for
DreamSpace Academy sets out here the organisation, its education in four programme families, its labs and ventures, and MakerSpace by DreamSpace Academy, a replicable makerspace that local partners can set up as a social franchise.
The readers are educators, partners, funders and the communities the academy works with. Each page separates what is known, what has been seen here, and what is still being tested.
Version 4.4.1 Updated 8 October 2026
The organisation
What the model is made of
The model has four parts: capable people; a place to build; the money, market access, introductions and continued support that have to sit alongside skill before it becomes a livelihood; and a network that connects an underserved community to the world. Each page below says how well its part is evidenced.
About the organisation →
Origin, belief, purpose, mission, vision and values, and the standard of practice each value turns into.
Why this work exists →
The seven conditions the work is built to change, and why training on its own does not produce a livelihood.
Theory of change →
Four streams of work rather than one chain, with a grade for how well each claim is evidenced.
The DreamSpace Lifecycle →
Three stages, one thread and four support modes, and the test for who counts as a changemaker.
Labs & research →
Labs as capabilities and communities of practice that can run in many places, and the four conditions before anything is called a lab.
Ventures & incubation →
How a tested solution becomes a venture, what the academy incubates, and the ownership claims it does not make.
Venture pathway →
Three stages, one thread and four support modes, for changemakers who take the venture route.
Impact & the global goals →
Which global goals the work carries, what carries each one, and the two that came off the list.
Measurement →
The results hierarchy, the innovation ladder, and the rules the academy reports under.
How the work is funded →
The three sources that pay for the work, why none of them is ranked, and what the model is trying to become.
The education system and the MakerSpace
The education system is how capability gets built, in schools, at partner sites, online and in the academy’s own spaces. It runs in four programme families, and maker education is one of them. The MakerSpace is a separate product: a makerspace that local partners can set up, and one more place the programmes can run. Both are below.
The education system
Four programme families
DreamSpace Academy teaches in four programme families. Maker education is one of them.
Maker education
Electronics, robotics, digital fabrication, music and media making, in schools and in the academy’s own spaces.
Entrepreneurship and business
Business and entrepreneurship trainings, startup bootcamps and the DreamShot Startup Challenge.
Digital skills and security
Media and information literacy, the Digital Security School, software and AI, and digital marketing.
Professional and teacher training
Workplace English, leadership workshops, training of trainers and training for school teachers.
Maker education
The Maker Journey: four stages
The Maker Journey is the progression used in maker education. It keeps two questions apart: what a piece of work is for, and how deep it goes in one subject.
Explorer
Try materials, tools and ideas in a welcoming, low-pressure environment. Guided, and not assessed.
Maker
Build reliable capability through sustained, assessed projects in a chosen subject.
Innovator
Apply that capability to an open problem that exists outside the room.
Changemaker
Turn tested work into sustained contribution to a community.
The education standard
The education standard: four commitments
Completion needs evidence against a published standard, not attendance. Placement is by what someone can demonstrate, so prior learning counts however it was gained. In maker education, a stage describes purpose, and is named rather than numbered; a level describes depth inside one subject, and belongs to a programme rather than to a person. The maker education approach sets out each one.
Constructionism makes the case for learning by building things other people can see and use[1, 4]. Systematic reviews find that makerspaces support creativity, across a large body of studies[24, 25]. And assessing maker work is well precedented rather than experimental[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.
Four verbs: how well each is evidenced
Learn, Make, Solve, Earn. There is good evidence for the first three in maker education. There is not for Earn, so the academy treats it as a hypothesis to measure rather than a claim.
The MakerSpace
MakerSpace by DreamSpace Academy
MakerSpace by DreamSpace Academy is a community makerspace built to be replicated as a social franchise. A local partner provides the space. DreamSpace Academy provides the design of the unit, the brand, the operating standard and a licence to run its programmes there. The programmes do not need a MakerSpace, and run in schools, at partner sites and online as well.
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 right now changes often: places, dates, the language of delivery, fees or funded places, and access arrangements. Ask DreamSpace Academy directly for those.
Learners and parents
Ask what is open now and what the placement check involves. No prior qualification is needed to start. The FAQ answers other common questions.
Schools and community organisations
The academy delivers in partnership with schools and community groups. A partner that wants a space of its own can set up a MakerSpace; what that involves on both sides is set out under replication.
Get in touch
Start here
Every page on this site
About the organisation →
Origin, belief, purpose, definition, mission, vision, values and standards of practice.
Why this work exists →
The seven conditions the model is built to change, and what is not claimed about them.
Theory of change →
Four streams, the medium-term layer, and a grade for how well each claim is evidenced.
The DreamSpace Lifecycle →
Ways in, the test that converts a candidate into a changemaker, the four support modes, and the exits that are not failures.
Labs & research →
What a lab is, its three uses, the four conditions before anything is called a lab, and the academy's own research plans.
Ventures & incubation →
The founder funnel, what the incubation record contains, and how all three kinds of outcome are reported.
Venture pathway →
Two ways in, the gate, venture building, the four support modes, and what is still open.
Impact & the global goals →
Nine goals with what carries each one, and the two that came off the list.
How the work is funded →
The three sources that pay for the work, what the model is trying to become, and the rules for describing the academy's own role.
Measurement →
The results hierarchy, the innovation ladder, the eight instruments, and the reporting rules.
The maker education approach →
The core definitions, what is fixed, what is left open, and the published work it is built on.
The Maker Journey →
The four stages used in maker education, how depth in a subject is tracked, movement and placement, and the maker profile.
Facilitation →
How teaching is sequenced, the two delivery modes, and what a facilitator does.
Assessment →
The completion standard, the six evidence states, and the three sources of certificate evidence.
Programme families and domains →
The four programme families, the maker education subjects offered now, how depth inside a programme is structured, and what every programme has to publish.
Innovation & enterprise →
Research, entrepreneurship and business literacy as a strand through every domain, and what “Earn” claims.
The MakerSpace →
The replicable makerspace, and who provides what in a social franchise.
Replication →
The Starter Unit, who provides what, unit economics as a planning case, and the expected risks.
Common questions →
Questions from parents, schools, donors and partners, including the ones with no settled answer yet.
Articles →
Cited explanations of the choices behind the practice.
Glossary →
Every term used in a specific sense, what each one excludes, and the words this site does not use.
References →
The published works this site draws on, grouped by topic.