About East College Durham
Our Mission is to connect people to opportunities. The College is home to a genuine and supportive community of students and staff - we believe you won’t find a more supportive and friendlier college. And that support leads to some great results. A high proportion of our students progress successfully into further or higher education, apprenticeships or employment. Check out our former student profiles page to see a sample of their amazing achievements or our Student Success Stories on our YouTube channel.
Students at East Durham College also develop their confidence, self-esteem and work-related skills - developing good employability skills and enhance their future opportunities. We also have a strong focus on helping students to make a positive contribution to their communities through the community project aspect of our exciting tutorial programme.
The work of our students and our Students’ Union also helps a wide range of charities and community action projects. In fact, our 14-16 Engage provision was shortlisted for the 2020 Tes FE Awards in the Contribution to the Local Community Award category.
Our campuses
East Durham College offers a huge range of courses across three campuses for both learners aged 16-19 and adults looking for retraining or to increase their existing skills.
Peterlee campus
The college’s Peterlee campus is home to state-of-the-art facilities including a digital suite for use by ICT students, carpentry, joinery and painting and decorating workshops, beauty and hairdressing salons, and some of the region’s best sport facilities including a double sports hall and floodlit 3G pitch.
Technical Academy, Peterlee
The Technical Academy, also in Peterlee, is the college’s dedicated facility for those interested in construction trades. Students at the TA benefit from a realistic working environment and excellent facilities, tuition and equipment for courses including engineering, electrical, motor vehicle, welding and plumbing/heating engineering.
Houghall campus
Finally, the college’s Houghall campus, in Durham, offers a wide range of land-based courses and is now the largest provider of these courses in the area. With millions of investment (and even more to come) in Houghall’s facilities, Houghall is the perfect place for students to study courses including Agriculture, Animal Care, Equine, Floristry, Land & Wildlife Management, Tree Surgery and Veterinary Nursing.
What's on offer
At East Durham College, you don't have to be a school leaver to join us! We offer courses for everyone aged 16 and above from entry level to foundation degree programmes.
Vocational courses
Vocational programmes are all about you studying a particular subject and focusing your skills in that area. For example, you might study hairdressing, training to become a hairdresser, or study equine, with the aim of becoming a horse trainer.
At East Durham College, we offer vocational courses at all three of our campuses.
View our vocational courses.
T Levels
A T-Level programme combines together the practical and theory study you'd get on a normal vocational course with an extended industry work experience placement, giving you a taste of real work alongside your college course.
That means that those who leave college with a T Level qualification are in a fantastic position to move onto other things, whether you go directly into work or onto further study at university.
We offer T Levels in the following subjects and specialisms:
- Agriculture, Land Management and Production
- Tree and Woodland Management and Maintenance
- Construction
- Electrical and electronic equipment engineering
- Plumbing and Heating
- Education and Childcare
- Assisting Teaching
- Early Years Educator
- Engineering, Manufacturing, Processing and Control
- Health and Life Sciences
- Laboratory Sciences
- Supporting the Adult Nursing Team
Browse all T Levels.
Apprenticeships
Courses not the route for you? Why not earn while you learn instead with an apprenticeship? Apprenticeships are deal for both young people looking to get started in a career as well as adults looking to retrain.
Browse apprenticeship areas.
Higher Education
We work with several universities to offer degree-level programmes at the college. Many of the programmes are foundation level courses where you complete 1-2 years of study with East Durham College before choosing or not to complete a final year at the university which runs the degree programme.
View our Higher Education courses.
Short courses for adults
We are the largest provider of further education training to adult students in County Durham. Whether you're a complete beginner or work in industry and want to learn something new to progress your career, our adult courses are perfect for you.
View all courses for adults.
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