Learning paths
Where do you
want to go?
Project paths are built around a real goal: a room renovated, a harvest preserved, a workshop set up. Topic tracks follow a subject from first principles to depth. Certification prep tracks end somewhere concrete — a recognised qualification, sat with an external provider.
Project paths
Landscape Your Garden
Seven courses that take a neglected or empty plot from site clearance through design, hard landscaping, water features, planting, and long-term maintenance.
Clear Your Garden
Coming Jan 2027
Design Your Garden
Coming Jan 2027
Build a Garden Deck
Coming Jan 2027
Lay a Patio
Coming Jan 2027
Build a Garden Pond
Coming Feb 2027
Plan Your Planting
Coming Feb 2027
Garden Maintenance
Coming Feb 2027
Grow Your Own
Grow food, find food, and put it up for winter. Four courses that take you through the full cycle of producing and preserving your own food.
Beekeeping: Your First Hive
Coming Oct 2026
Renovate a Room
The four skills that cover most of what a room renovation actually requires: patching walls, tiling, painting, and the basic repairs you'd otherwise pay someone else to do.
Patching and Plastering Walls
Coming Nov 2026
How to Tile a Bathroom or Kitchen
Coming Nov 2026
Painting and Decorating: Do It Properly
Coming Nov 2026
Set Up a Workshop
How to set up a workshop from nothing, then fill it with skills. Joinery, repairs and electronics, everything you need to fix and build.
Setting Up Your First Workshop or Shed
Coming Dec 2026
The Outdoors
Four courses for being useful and confident outdoors, whether you're on a bike, on foot, in a hedgerow, or dealing with an emergency.
First Aid Essentials
Coming Oct 2026
Your Space
Five courses for creating intentional spaces: a home office or den, a workshop, a greenhouse, a balcony garden, and a vegetable allotment. Each one is a place you'll want to spend time in.
Setting Up Your First Workshop or Shed
Coming Dec 2026
The Smallholder
Everything you'd want to know to make serious use of a piece of land, from the kitchen garden and the hive to preserving and fermenting what you grow.
Certification prep
Sell What You Make
Learn to make the classic market-stall products (bread, jam, marmalade), then the food hygiene that lets you sell them: registration, allergens, temperatures, and a written routine an inspector will recognise. Finishes at the Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate, sat online with an external provider for £10–25.
A short online multiple-choice exam with an external provider, £10–25. Pick one that is CPD-assured or Ofqual-regulated (Highfield and RSPH are the recognisable awarding bodies). The food-hygiene course maps to the syllabus, so sit it while the numbers are fresh. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
The Qualified Gardener
Grow things, then learn the science that names, explains and predicts what you're doing: plant biology, soil, propagation and pests. Prepares for the RHS Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Horticulture, the recognised theory qualification.
An Ofqual-regulated theory qualification from RHS Qualifications, assessed by written exams at approved centres or online proctoring, usually at February and June sittings, not on demand. The principles course maps to its core themes; the full syllabus, dates and past papers are on the RHS site. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
Play to Grade
Guitar from nothing, then how graded music exams actually work: the boards, what gets marked, and how to prepare over months rather than cram. Prepares for a graded exam with ABRSM, Trinity, RSL or LCM.
Grades run 1 to 8 and all the main UK boards are Ofqual-regulated, so the standard is comparable. What differs is repertoire. RSL/Rockschool usually suits the guitar course best. There are no entry requirements and no need to start at Grade 1. Entries run to fixed periods with deadlines weeks ahead, and lower-grade fees are typically £25–45; confirm current dates and fees with the board. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
Be the First Aider
What to do in the first few minutes, then the workplace half: what the law requires of an employer, appointed person versus first aider, kits and records, and RIDDOR. Prepares for the Level 3 Award in Emergency First Aid at Work, which is assessed in person and cannot be obtained online.
First Aid Essentials
Coming Oct 2026
This track opens when its last course is published — the courses above are listed now so you can see what is coming. One day, around six hours, with practical assessment. You demonstrate CPR and casualty handling in front of an assessor, so no online-only course can award it. Blended delivery (theory online, practical in person) is legitimate. Typically £60–120. The HSE has not approved providers since 2013, so look for a recognised awarding organisation or a voluntary aid society such as St John Ambulance or the British Red Cross. The certificate is valid three years. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
Keep Bees Properly
Getting a colony established, then the year that follows: reading a frame, controlling swarming before it controls you, monitoring varroa, recognising the notifiable diseases, and handling honey legally. Prepares for the BBKA Basic Assessment.
Beekeeping: Your First Hive
Coming Oct 2026
This track opens when its last course is published — the courses above are listed now so you can see what is coming. A practical assessment at the hive with a BBKA assessor, covering handling, natural history, equipment, swarming, disease and honey. It needs roughly a year of managing your own colony behind it and can only be taken in season, when colonies can be opened, so it is one to plan a summer around. Apply through your local BBKA association, which is also where you will find someone to practise with. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
Work on Bikes
The home-mechanic skills first, then the workshop standard on top: the systematic safety check, wheel truing and spoke tension, chain wear, indexing and torque. Prepares for Cytech technical one, the entry level of the UK's recognised bicycle technician scheme.
The entry level of the UK bicycle technician scheme, run by Activate Cycle Academy and approved providers, available by online theory route or in person. Confirm the current format and fee when booking. Technical two is the level bike shops actually recruit on, and is assessed practical work over several weeks. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
Behind the Machine
Brewing first, then the two skills a café actually sells: espresso dialled in by dose, yield and time, and milk textured to pour. Prepares for the SCA Barista Skills Foundation module, assessed hands-on by an Authorised SCA Trainer.
Part of the Specialty Coffee Association's modular international Coffee Skills Program. Taught and assessed in person by an Authorised SCA Trainer, usually over one to two days, by written and practical assessment, so unlike the other tracks here, you cannot sit it at a desk. It carries points toward the SCA Coffee Skills Diploma. Find a trainer and confirm fees on sca.coffee. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
Know the Wiring Regs
What BS 7671 actually is, how its seven Parts and Appendices are organised, and how to find an answer in it under time pressure. Prepares for the City & Guilds 2382 exam, a knowledge qualification about the Wiring Regulations, not a licence to carry out electrical work.
An open-book multiple-choice exam of roughly two hours, sat at a City & Guilds approved centre, with no entry requirement, typically £100–£180. You take your own copy of BS 7671 in, so confirm the current course code when booking: it changes with each amendment and must match your copy. Passing certifies knowledge of the regulations only. Carrying out and certifying notifiable work additionally requires an installation qualification, assessed competence, and registration with a Part P competent person scheme. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
Keep & Serve Beer
Brew your own, then the knowledge behind a good bar: what the styles are, how to store and pour beer so it tastes as brewed, and how to name the faults that ruin it. Prepares for the Cicerone Certified Beer Server, the recognised entry-level beer qualification.
The Cicerone programme's entry level, for anyone serving beer. An on-demand online exam of around 60 multiple-choice questions, about 75% to pass, roughly £50–60. Free study materials are on cicerone.org, and this course maps to the syllabus. The exam is sat with an independent provider — airgap.life teaches the material but does not award the qualification, and currently has no commercial relationship with any exam provider.
Topic tracks
Creative Track
A sequence through the visual arts: drawing first, then watercolour, then oil, then printmaking. Each one builds on what came before.
Maker Track
Leather, fabric, yarn and paper: four courses in working with materials by hand. Everything you make, you'll keep.
Music Track
Guitar first, the hardest and most rewarding. Then ukulele and piano when you want something different.
Ukulele: Your First Songs
Coming Sept 2026
Kitchen Track
Bread, sourdough, pasta, coffee and fermentation are the core skills of a kitchen that works without shortcuts.
Pasta: From Scratch
Coming Oct 2026
Mind & Body Track
Meditation and running, two practices that compound quietly over months and years.
Life Skills Track
Public speaking, journaling, and the practices that compound quietly into sharper thinking and clearer expression.
Ace the Job Interview
Coming Feb 2027
Fix & Build Track
The courses that make you the person who doesn't need to call anyone: repairs, joinery, electronics.