# Barking and Dagenham College

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.
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.

## History

Originally known as Barking College, it became Barking & Dagenham College in 2010.
In 2015 the College became a Digital & Creative Industries Career College.
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.
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.

## 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.
* 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
* Emmanuel Nwamadi, participant at The Voice UK, Series 4.
* Gurbir Singh Johal, BNOC at Homerton College Cambridge.