The Career Change Accelerator
About this Programme
Find clarity, confidence and direction in your career, without needing to know your next step yet. The Career Change Accelerator is an 8-week, expert-led programme designed to help you step out of career confusion and into meaningful, sustainable work. It’s for people who feel stuck, restless or ready for change, even if they don’t yet have a clear plan.
Paid-for training
Programme type
Online
Location
Facilitated By
Escape the City
We are a global community. Since 2010 we've been on a mission to help 1,000,000 quit their corporate jobs and find work that matters to them and the world. We are the leading purposeful career change platform, helping mission-driven job seekers find work that they believe in, at organisations doing things differently.
About the Programme
When you know something needs to change, but don’t know what yet
You might recognise this. You know you can’t stay exactly where you are, but you also don’t have a clear alternative.
You worry that changing direction might mean starting again, losing progress, or making a decision you later regret. You tell yourself you should wait until you feel more certain, more qualified, or more confident. At the same time, staying put is starting to feel harder than it used to.
This isn’t because you’re indecisive or lacking ambition. It’s what happens when capable, thoughtful people reach a point where their current path no longer fits, but the next one isn’t obvious yet.
The Career Change Accelerator is designed for this moment. It gives you structure, perspective and practical tools to explore new directions, test ideas and build confidence through action, without forcing you into an all-or-nothing leap.
🚀 Apply to the Career Change Accelerator
Applications are now open for the February 2026 programme.
What you’ll gain by the end of the programme
By the end of the eight weeks, you will have clearer insight into what you want from your work, and what you don’t. You’ll better understand your strengths, values and needs, and see realistic career directions and combinations you may not have considered before.
You’ll feel more confident talking about your experience and interests, and will have taken practical steps towards new opportunities, roles or experiments. Most importantly, you’ll have momentum again, rather than feeling stuck in reflection.
This isn’t about finding a single “right answer”. It’s about learning how to move forward with confidence, now and in the future.
How the Career Change Accelerator works
The programme runs live and online over eight weeks. It’s designed around a simple principle: clarity comes from action, not overthinking.
Each week combines expert-led input with guided reflection and practical exercises that help you apply ideas directly to your own situation. You’ll explore possibilities, test assumptions and take small, deliberate steps forward, rather than trying to design a perfect plan upfront.
Sessions are interactive and workshop-based. You’ll spend time thinking, doing and reflecting, with structure to help you keep moving when things feel uncertain. Between sessions, you’ll continue the work through digital workbooks and small experiments designed to build confidence through experience rather than theory.
What’s included
The programme includes eight live, 2.5-hour evening workshops, delivered in a small, considered cohort of people at a similar stage.
You’ll be supported by digital workbooks to guide reflection and action between sessions, guest speakers sharing real experience of career change, and access to session recordings, summaries and practical tools.
You’ll also join the wider Escape School network. Everything is designed to help you stay engaged, keep experimenting and make steady progress, even when motivation dips or uncertainty shows up.
The curriculum, at a glance
The programme is structured around three connected phases: understanding yourself, building your toolkit, and sustaining change over time.
You’ll work through themes including mindset, identity and resilience; values, strengths and self-knowledge; the changing world of work and future skills; exploring possibilities and career prototyping; acting with an entrepreneurial mindset; marketing yourself and building connections; intelligent transition planning; and reflection, showcases and next steps.
Some weeks focus on a single theme, while others combine several. The aim is not to rush towards an answer, but to build the skills and confidence to navigate change well, now and in the future.
Dates, times and cost
The next Career Change Accelerator runs from 17 February to 14 April 2026. Sessions take place on Tuesday evenings from 6.00 to 8.30pm (UK time). All sessions are live and online.
Format
- 8 live, interactive online workshops
- Collaborative and workshop-based
- Digital tools used to support participation and reflection
- Session recordings and materials shared after each session
Cost
Early bird price: £1,050. Standard price: £1,270. Payment plans are available
Payment is only requested after you have applied and been offered a place.
Who the Accelerator is for
The Career Change Accelerator is for you if:
- You’re mid-career and questioning what’s next.
- You want work that fits your life, values and energy.
- You don’t want a one-size-fits-all answer.
- You’re open to reflection and experimentation.
- You’re ready to take responsibility for change, with the right structure around you.
You don’t need a business idea, a new CV or a clear destination, you just need a willingness to begin.
What past participants say
“I stopped feeling like I was failing for not knowing my next step, and started feeling excited again.”
“The structure made all the difference. I finally took action.”
“More valuable than my MBA.”
Ready to take a thoughtful next step?
If you’re feeling the pull towards change, the Career Change Accelerator gives you the space, tools and structure to explore it properly.
🚀 Apply to the Career Change Accelerator
Careers we’ve helped shift
We’ve had over 2,500 people complete our Career Change Programmes since we launched the Escape School in 2014. We have hundreds of alumni successfully freelancing, running their own businesses, and working in careers on their own terms. Here’s a few of our alumni stories:
Nicky
Nicky escaped a career in sales to join On Purpose – a leadership programme and placement in the social enterprise sector.
Claudia
Claudia escaped a career in investment banking to launch an idea with Sustainable Ventures – after taking a sabbatical to explore her potential paths, she was accepted onto the Sustainable Ventures programme (a green Accelerator programme) to disrupt the travel industry’s relationship with plastic where she launched Circla.
Luzana
Luzana escaped a career in Oil & Gas as a Geologist to work in communications at Entrepreneur First – a tech accelerator focused on helping people to launch new innovations on a global scale. Luzana has now moved on to work in the Venture Capital industry.
Joe
Joe escaped a career in Law to become a “Freelance Human Being” – Joe has launched a portfolio career which better suits his young family, he’s launched 3 businesses and now picks and chooses the projects that excite him the most. Read more about his journey.
Paul
Paul escaped the Armed Forces and a career as a Meteorologist to launch a career in sustainability – he now runs his own consultancy helping businesses in Winchester to be more sustainable.
Claudia
Claudia escaped advertising to launch a portfolio career – Claudia wasn’t happy working 9-9 on causes she wasn’t excited about. So she retrained to become a pilates teacher, as well as launching a portfolio career.
Programme FAQs
All your questions should be answered here.
The Career Change Accelerator is for thoughtful, capable people who know something in their career needs to change, but aren’t yet clear on what that change should look like.
Some people join with lots of ideas, others with one rough direction, and some with none at all. What matters most is that you’re willing to explore, test things out, and take responsibility for moving forward rather than staying stuck in overthinking.
You don’t need to be planning a dramatic career pivot. Many participants make smaller, meaningful shifts that add up to significant change over time.
This programme builds on over a decade of experience at Escape the City, supporting thousands of people to navigate career change in a changing world of work.
The Accelerator is unlikely to be a good fit if you’re looking for a quick fix, a guaranteed outcome, or a programme that tells you exactly what to do.
It also may not be right for you if you already feel clear, confident, and ready to execute your next career move independently.
This programme is designed to support people who want to engage thoughtfully with change, not rush it or outsource it.
By the end of the programme, most participants leave with:
- Greater clarity about what they want from their work and what no longer fits
- A clearer understanding of their values, strengths, and blockers
- Increased confidence in how they talk about themselves and their direction
- Practical momentum through experiments, conversations, or early opportunities
- A clearer sense of next steps, even if the final destination isn’t decided yet
Some people leave with a new role lined up. Others begin freelancing, negotiate changes in their current role, or start testing new directions alongside their existing work. Progress looks different for everyone.
If you feel clear, confident, and ready to act on your next step, the Accelerator may not add much value for you.
However, if you have a strong sense of direction but feel unsure how to make it happen, lack confidence in execution, or want structure and support while you take action, the programme can still be a good fit.
Over the years, we’ve seen that clarity alone rarely leads to change. Action, structure, and accountability are usually what make the difference.
Each Career Change Accelerator is led by an experienced Escape coach.
Your coach’s role is not to give you answers, but to guide the process, ask better questions, and help you troubleshoot challenges as they arise. You’ll learn through doing, reflection, and experimentation rather than being taught a fixed framework.
The programme draws on over a decade of experience running career change programmes at Escape the City, alongside guest speakers and contributors who have navigated significant career change themselves.
Participants come from a wide range of industries and roles, including finance, education, technology, consulting, media, healthcare, the civil service, creative industries, charities, and more.
This diversity is a strength. Hearing different perspectives helps challenge assumptions and opens up new ways of thinking about what’s possible.
You’ll attend one live session each week, lasting 2.5 hours.
Outside of sessions, most participants spend around 1–3 hours per week on reflection, exercises, or small experiments. The programme is designed to fit alongside a full-time job.
Yes. Many participants are working while completing the programme.
The Accelerator is designed to help you make progress without needing to quit your job or make immediate, high-risk decisions.
You’ll leave with tools, clarity, and a clearer sense of direction. You’ll also have access to the wider Escape School alumni network, where many participants continue to share opportunities, support one another, and stay connected beyond the programme.
This longer-term community is one of the things past participants value most.
We use an application process to make sure the programme is a good fit for you and that we can genuinely support you.
We’re not assessing your CV or judging how impressive your background is. We’re looking for openness, willingness to engage, and readiness to take responsibility for your own progress.
This is a two-way decision. If we don’t think the Accelerator is right for you, we’ll tell you and suggest alternative resources where possible. This approach has been shaped by more than ten years of running career change programmes and learning what works.
We strongly encourage you not to accept a place on the Career Change Accelerator unless you’re confident you can prioritise it. We know life can change, but intention and commitment matter for the experience to work well.
Refund policy
If you withdraw more than 6 weeks before the start date, we will refund your full fee.
If you withdraw between 6 and 3 weeks before the start date, part of your fee will be retained and the remainder refunded.
If you withdraw within 3 weeks of the start date, a larger portion of the fee will be retained.
If you withdraw on or after the start date, payments are non-refundable.
Extraordinary circumstances such as serious illness or bereavement will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Where possible, our priority will be to defer you to a later programme or suggest a suitable alternative.