Centre for Digital Technologies official opening in Basildon

South Essex College held an official opening ceremony to welcome students, staff
and employers to its brand new Basildon town centre campus.

The event to celebrate the official opening of the college’s Centre for Digital
Technologies took place on Thursday 21 October 2021, which coincided with
Association of Colleges ‘Colleges Week.’

The Mayor of Basildon, Councillor David Dadds, cut the ribbon to mark the occasion.
Also in attendance were Simon Warnes, Director of Connect Partnerships at Sharp
and Chris Travers, Area Director (Essex) at Morgan Sindall who both gave speeches
at the event.

Guests were treated to afternoon tea and tours of the high-tech campus, viewing the
outstanding facilities that will help equip students with the skills needed to enter the
digital industries such as the green screen suite and Virtual Reality programmes.

Angela O’Donoghue, Principal and Chief Executive at South Essex College, said:

“We have been looking forward to holding this event for such a long time. It’s great to
finally be able to invite the local community and industry connections on site. We’ve
built something really special here, that will go on to educate the future tech
workforce for many years to come.”

The Centre for Digital Technologies houses state-of-the-art facilities and equipment
for students on courses with a tech focus including IT networking, app development,
games design and animation. The three-storey project has been built on the previous
market site thanks to a partnership between Basildon Council, Homes England and
South Essex College.

Areas of the building have been modelled on tech sector offices, giving that
innovative ‘Google’ feel to a lot of the open plan spaces. Students will be able to
experience working in this kind of modern environment, preparing them to enter the
industry.

For more information about the digital courses on offer at the college’s new campus
in Basildon, visit www.southessex.ac.uk/new-state-of-the-art-campus-in-basildon

Daytime presenter Aston Avery was at the event and spoke to Angela O’Donoghue, principal at South Essex College, Steve Bright, head of tech at South Essex College and 2 students.