77 Degrees of success for Barking & Dagenham College

250 people, including their proud friends, family, VIPs and members of staff packed out the theatre at Jo Richardson Community School, which hosted the event.

As well as celebrating the graduates, this year, four special awards were made by the Symons-Hatton Trustees to recognise students who have a dedicated and genuine passion for lens based media shown through the commitment and development of their studies and personal creative work.

The photography first prize was awarded to Igors Tarasenko, a B.A (Hons) Photography graduate and fellow photography students Tamas Sarkany and Indre Neiberkaite and Vanessa Morrisson, a Creative Media Production student, were also commended.

Brendan James, Head of Higher Level Skills & Enhancement at the College commented: “Our Higher Education Awards & Graduation Ceremony is one of the highlights of the academic year. It has been a wonderful day  celebrating the success of our graduates, alongside their family and friends who have supported them along the way. We wish each of them the very best for the future.”

Barking & Dagenham College offers higher level technical and professional training, from entry to level 7 that prepares people for work or for university. Operating from five specialist sites, with industry-standard facilities and real-work training environments, the College welcomes all age groups. The College has an established Higher Education programme (HNC/D, degree, postgraduate) in addition to a wider range of professional body qualifications.

Barking & Dagenham College is one of the leading providers of intermediate, advanced and higher apprenticeship training in London, training around 1000 apprentices and working with around 300 employer clients each year.  Specialisms include Construction, Project Management, Human Resources Management, Business and Pharmacy.

The College has the Matrix Award for Advice and Guidance, STEM Assured kite mark, Investors in People Gold Status and its HE offer achieved QAA standards in 2015.[6] The College has won a number of prestigious national awards including: Beacon status by the AoC in 2016, Coding College of the Year 2016, as well as the Tes Award for Best Teaching and Learning Initiative in 2018 for its “holistically and usefully” integrated STEM across wider curriculum areas. In April 2018 the College was named as Training Provider of the Year by Creative & Cultural Skills.

Its teaching staff has received a number of nominations and awards: VQ Teacher of the Year 2016, Pearson FE Lecturer of the Year Silver Teaching Award 2016, Regional Santander Employability Champion Winner for London and the South East 2017,[13] two teachers awarded in Maths Teacher of the Year Awards 2017, ENTHUSE award for excellence in STEM teaching 2017, a top 50 shortlist for Global Teacher of the Year 2017 and winner of the Festival of Learning National Tutor Award 2017.