They put 20 people, mostly in their 20s, through an eight week academy after various weird IQ tests, and with an undisclosed secret formula hired 18. I was asked very little on telecoms in the first interview, but had to do a python test, two telecoms tests and a telecoms 5-minute presentation later in the training. The latter was really an 8-ish minute presentation as the interviewer forgot to time mine, but let me carry on awkwardly on without confirming my suspicions that the 5 minutes felt far to long.... They stated they would tell us if we got the jobs on Monday, but decided to keep all of us waiting until Tuesday without telling us of their plan, for again mysterious reasons. The Belfast Met, who ran the academy with Metaswitch paid £30 per day to attendees, and gave good instruction on soft skills and business. While they and Metaswitch also gave lots of lessons in IT and telecoms. The teachers were mostly great, though with only three women on the academy (and I was literally the only woman in the room for over two weeks as our group was split or the other two were off) the occasional sexual jokes made by the instructors and sometimes felt a bit weird to me, as did the rare 'locker-room talk', but sexist exclusion was generally low. The Met offers career and emotional support to everyone during and after the course, and many students have been helped to get on to other academies after a failed one.