Southend City College
Located next to Southend Central station, Southend City College campus offers a vibrant city centre learning environment with a wide range of vocational subjects, adult courses and higher education delivered in realistic work spaces using cutting edge technology.
Specialist facilities include:
- The Performing Arts Centre including professional studios for performing arts including a dedicated dance studio.
- State of the Art Queens Road Gym centre with 2 large cardio and weights rooms, student and sports massage teaching room.
- Xtreme recording and rehearsal studio, with mixing, recording, rehearsal and sequencing facilities for sound and music production students.
- Radio studio for broadcast and audio work.
- Fully equipped photographic studio with digital SLR cameras.
- Dedicated art studios and design work spaces. Podcast and journalism newsroom.
- Public facing Academy of Hair and Beauty where students directly support paying clients.
- Industry focused dedicated areas for childcare and healthcare with nursery style environments and a healthcare settings, including professional equipment such as resuscitation mannequins, a resuscitation trolley, blood pressure monitors and a blood taking arm.
- Science labs and crime scene room.
- 250 seat Performance Pod.
General facilities include:
- More than 2,000 PCs and a wide range of Apple Mac computers for everything from graphic design to film editing.
- Large learning resource centre access, including study spaces, learning resources and student network computers.
- Restaurants and coffee shops.
- A central location close to Southend High Street, shops, restaurants, transport links and local cultural venues.
Basildon College
Incorporating Centre of Digital Technologies, Luckyn Lane Campus, and Stephenson Road Campus
Basildon College offers specialist technical and digital facilities designed around real careers. From practical workshops to modern open plan learning spaces, students gain hands on experience using industry standard equipment, supported by expert teaching that helps them progress with confidence.
Specialist facilities include:
- State of the art Motor Vehicle, Engineering and Construction Centre at Stephenson Road, including motor vehicle workshops, carpentry and construction centres, specialist engineering and bricklaying teaching areas.
- Engineering Centre at Luckyn Lane with extensive welding bays, fabrication, automation hydraulics, pneumatics, CNC machining, lathes, milling machines and electronic workshops
- At Luckyn Lane, dedicated Building Services workshops for electrical installations and plumbing, including gas installations. New Centre Energy Centre.
- Dedicated Marine engineering workshop, with state of the art 'Hydro-energy' training facility.
- Specialist 'Centre for Digital Technologies' in Basildon town centre, with specialist digital facilities for IT networking, app development, games design, animation, digital production, digital and IT media
- Modern open plan digital learning spaces modelled on tech sector offices, giving students an innovative workplace style environment that helps prepare them for industry.
General Facilities include:
- Learning Resource Centres to support students personal development with access to careers, additional learning support and resources.
- Welcoming cafes/restaurants at each campus
- Dedicated English and maths teaching rooms
Thurrock College
Thurrock College offers state of the art facilities in the heart of Grays, just a 2 minute walk from the train station and town centre. The modern £45 million campus is made up of 2 buildings, the West Building and East Building.
Students learn in modern, industry focused spaces designed to support practical skills, confidence and progression, with specialist workshops, studios, salons, a training restaurant and facilities across construction, engineering, media, creative arts, logistics, childcare, health and social care, and IT.
Specialist facilities include:
- Estuary Music Studios with industry level equipment, practice and recording studios.
- Outdoor amphitheatre for production arts, acting and musical performances.
- Specialist workshop and studio spaces for construction, engineering, media and creative arts.
- Industry focused dedicated areas for childcare and healthcare with nursery style environments and a healthcare settings, including professional equipment such as resuscitation mannequins, a resuscitation trolley, blood pressure monitors and a blood taking arm.
- Hairdressing and beauty therapy salons, part of Academy of Hair and Beauty are open to the public, giving students experience in a professional client facing environment.
- Working spa facilities, including a floatation tank.
- Large fully equipped teaching spaces for catering programmes, including industry specification kitchen facilities. Waves restaurant, the College’s training restaurant, supports students to develop professional catering and hospitality skills.
- New for 2026, Clean Energy Centre, a purpose built training environment designed to mirror domestic and commercial retrofit and low carbon installations, providing fully operational systems that give learners hands on experience of clean energy and retrofit technologies.
- Science labs and teaching spaces for the delivery of A-Level provision with dedicated pathways in medicine, engineering and computing.
- Large auditorium spaces used for guest speakers and events.
General facilities include:
- Outdoor seating and a green space between the campus buildings.
- Learning resource centre access, including study spaces, learning resources and student network computers.
- A town centre location close to shops, services and local amenities.
- Excellent transport links, with the campus just a short walk from Grays train station and well connected by local buses and rail routes.
The Forum, Southend
University Centre South Essex students benefit from dedicated higher education facilities on the third floor of The Forum, in Southend, providing a modern, secure and supportive environment.
- Spacious lecture rooms and dedicated study areas
- Modern IT facilities
- Student social space with sofas, armchairs, TV and games console
- Secure ID card access system, with access to facilities until 10pm
- Dedicated higher education student support centre
- Central location for support, advice and guidance service
High House Production Park, Purfleet on Thames
High House Production Park is home to The Backstage Centre and The Bob and Tamar Manoukian Costume Centre, giving students access to a remarkable creative industry environment.
It is a place where education and industry come together, creating opportunities to learn in spaces used by professional productions, artists and creative organisations.
Specialist facilities include:
- The Backstage Centre, a purpose built production environment designed in consultation with experts from leading theatre and live production venues.
- Large sound stage measuring 875m2 with 15m grid height and high load capacity.
- Fully soundproofed, temperature controlled production environment.
- Rehearsal and production spaces for theatre, TV, film and live events.
- Recording studio, live room and band rehearsal space.
- Fully equipped dance studio with sprung floor.
- Green room, dressing rooms, production offices, meeting rooms, technical workshops, prop making and rigging spaces.
- Training rooms, classrooms and industry standard learning environments for live production training.
- The Bob and Tamar Manoukian Costume Centre, built in partnership with the Royal Opera House and home to the BA Hons Costume Construction degree.
A real working environment where students can learn alongside industry professionals and benefit from work based learning opportunities