Reading U21

Reading were granted Academy status by the Football Association in February 1999. The first Academy manager was John Stephenson who oversaw the club's youth development until October 2000 when he left to join Preston North End. He was succeeded by former Reading goalkeeper, and the then goalkeeping coach, Nick Hammond. After his appointment as Reading's first Director of football in September 2003, Hammond combined all three roles until the appointment of Exeter City boss Eamonn Dolan as the new Academy manager in October 2004. The club originally trained in rented facilities at Sonning Lane and Bradfield College but moved to their own training ground at Hogwood Park in Arborfield in 2004. A two-year Academy partnership with Boreham Wood was announced in July 2012 with the club also aiming to have a first-team composed of 50% Academy players. The introduction in 2012 of the four-tier academy system under the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) forced the club to search for a new training ground in order to meet the criteria for Category One status. With this in mind, the club agreed in principle to buy land at Bearwood Lakes Golf Club for a new training facility at a cost of between £10 million and £20 million in May 2013. In July 2013, the club confirmed they had achieved Category One status.

The Reading reserves competed in the Capital League between 1995 and 1998 before joining The Football Combination which they played in from 1998 until 2006, excluding the 1999–2000 season. With the senior side's promotion to the Premier League in 2006, the reserve team was also promoted to the Premier Reserve League for the 2006–07 season. Under future first-team manager Brian McDermott, the reserves finished top of the Southern section and beat Bolton reserves 2–0 to win the overall title in their first season. They finished second the following year but were relegated as the first team dropped into the Championship. The reserves rejoined the Football Combination following their relegation and remained there until 2010 when they withdrew in order to arrange their own fixtures against a higher level of opposition.

With the club's application for Category One status under the EPPP, the under-21 and Academy (under-18) teams competed in the new Professional Development League 1 for the 2012–13 season. The teams were successful under the new format with the under-18s finishing as runners-up to Fulham in the inaugural competition, and the under-21s winning the first U21 Premier League Cup the following year.

In July 2022, Reading confirmed that their Academy had lost its Category One status as a result of downsizing during the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, and as a result the club the dropped out of the Premier League 2 Division 2 to the Professional Development League. The club also confirmed their intentions to return to a Category One Academy.