Barking and Dagenham College

Barking & Dagenham College
Address
Dagenham Road, Rush Green Romford , Greater London , RM7 0XU England
Coordinates	51°33′36″N0°10′23″E / 51.560°N 0.173°E / 51.560; 0.173
Information
Type	Further education
Motto	Learning to create tomorrow: Technical & professional excellence at the heart of Barking & Dagenham
Established	1961
Local authority	Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council
Department for Education URN	130424 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Principal & CEO	Natalie Davison [1] [2]
Gender	Mixed
Age range	16+
Enrolment	Around 6,000
Website	www.barkingdagenhamcollege.ac.uk

Barking & Dagenham College is a general further education college in East London, England. It has three campuses across the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham with its main campus being located in Rush Green less than a mile from the Romford town centre. Their other campuses are located in Barking town center at the Technical Skills Academy, and Barking Learning Centre. ^[3]

The College is also home to the East London Institute of Technology. Institutes of Technology (IoT) were established by the Department for Education (DfE) to deliver world-class higher technical education - helping to increase the supply of high-skilled technicians across key industries that our economy needs.

Each IoT is awarded a license by DfE that outlines its role and objectives and is signed by all partners in the IoT. The Network has access to a £300 million capital funding pot to create state-of-the-art industry-standard facilities and infrastructure in which to deliver this learning. ^[4]

History

Originally known as Barking College, it became Barking & Dagenham College in 2010.

In 2015 the College became a Digital & Creative Industries Career College. ^[5]

In February 2018, the College was awarded a £5m share of £25.7m funding by the Mayor, Sadiq Khan to complete its Centre for Advanced Technologies. ^[6]

In 2021 the college opened the Idris Elba Studio, named after one of its famous alumni. The fully working, professional-standard television and film studio features five cameras and a gallery, a large digital production (green) screen, two broadcast video edit suites, an audio edit suite and the Foley Room which houses recording equipment for voices and sound effects. ^[7]

Courses

Barking & Dagenham College offers technical and professional training, from entry level to level 7 that prepares people for work or for university. Qualifications on offer at the college range from Apprenticeships, BTECs, City and Guilds, HNDs, NCFE/CACHE, NVQs, T-levels, and a range of professional qualifications such as AAT.

With industry-standard facilities and real-work training environments, the college welcomes all age groups.

Notable alumni

• Idris Elba, British actor, producer, musician, and DJ. He is best known for playing DCI John Luther on the BBC One series Luther as well as the narcotrafficker Stringer Bell in the HBO series The Wire. He has appeared in numerous films. Elba attended the UK government's inaugural knife crime summit in 2024, alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer and in 2025 appeared in a BBC documentary about knife crime.
• Adam Gemili, British Sprinter. He is the 2014 European champion at 200 metres, and 4 x 100 metres relay, and part of the Great Britain team that won gold in the 2017 World Championships in the same event.He was the first British athlete to run both the 100 m in less than 10 seconds and the 200 m in less than 20 seconds.
• Shaun Escoffery, a British soul and R&B singer and actor. Shaun currently plays Musafa in the Lion King. ^[8]
• Razaaq Adoti a British actor, producer and screenwriter. Adoti was cast as Yamba in Steven Spielberg’s feature epic, Amistad alongside Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman and Matthew McConaughey.
• Kano, English rapper and actor from East Ham, London.
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste, actress, singer-songwriter, composer and director, best known for her role as Hortense Cumberbatch in Secrets & Lies (1996), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was nominated for a Best Actress award at the 2025 BAFTAs for her performance in Hard Truths.
• Andi Osho, is a British actor and writer. Her career spans film, TV and theatre, from BBC drama like Blue Lights, Line of Duty, Death In Paradise and Holby, to movies such as Lights Out and DC Comics’ Shazam! Her debut novel, Asking For A Friend was published by HarperCollins in 2021 and her follow up, Tough Crowd, in 2023.
• Ricky Norwood, actor who played Fatboy in the BBC soap opera EastEnders ^{[9] [10]}
• Emmanuel Nwamadi, participant at The Voice UK, Series 4. ^[11]
• Gurbir Singh Johal, BNOC at Homerton College Cambridge. ^[12]

References

1. "Welcome".
2. "Welcome".
3. Barking College Report From The Inspectorate (PDF) (Report). Further Education Funding Council for England. 1998. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2021. https://barkingdagenhamcollege.ac.uk/about/our-campuses
4. "About | Institutes of Technology". www.institutesoftechnology.org.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
5. "Barking & Dagenham". Career Colleges Trust. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
6. Shaw, Alex (16 February 2018). "Mayor of London awards £5m funding to Barking and Dagenham College". Barking & Dagenham Post. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
7. "Idris Elba pays tribute to college at launch of TV studio". Barking and Dagenham Post. 8 July 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
8. "The Lion King Cast". Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
9. "Fatboy played by Ricky Norwood". BBC. Archived from the original on 27 January 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
10. "Ricky Norwood (EastEnders: E20) Interview". Last Broadcast. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
11. Davies, Rachel. "College gets behind The Voice finalist Emmanuel – College gets behind The Voice finalist Emmanuel". barkingdagenhamcollege.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
12. "BNOC 2019 nominations are officially open – University of Cambridge". Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2015.

External links

• Official website