In the early 1950s, reserve teams were incorporated into the third tier of the senior Scottish Football League, with Aberdeen 'A' taking part for six seasons of the arrangement.

[8] In the event that the long-awaited New Aberdeen Stadium is completed, the youth training facilities would certainly move to that location and some of the Reserve League fixtures may also take place there.

Aberdeen's geographical isolation from much of Scotland's population is an advantage to the Dons' player recruitment to some extent, as they are the only major club in a region of over 500,000 people so generally have the pick of the promising youngsters in the city and shire.

The relative economic power of the club also means that players from the Central Belt are frequently persuaded to move north, and over the decades many of Aberdeen's successful youth products (not least Willie Miller, McLeish, Black, Leighton, McMaster and later Joe Miller, Phil McGuire, Diamond and Chris Maguire) have moved from the west of Scotland to begin their professional careers.

In 2017, the Aberdeen academy was one of eight across the country designated 'elite' status on the introduction of Project Brave, an SFA initiative to concentrate the development of the best young players at a smaller number of clubs with high quality facilities and coaching than was previously the case.