PROCAT is a

further education college Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...

based in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England, with an additional campus in

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office for National Statistics. ( ...

. ''PROCAT'' is an acronym of "Prospect College of Advanced Technology", and the college specialises in engineering and construction training.

History

PROCAT was started in 1969 by the Engineering Industry Training Board (EITB) as SENTRA to train engineering apprentices. They were originally located at 83 Vanguard Way,

Shoeburyness Shoeburyness (; also called Shoebury) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. east of the city centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when i ...

before opening a further site at Fairfax Drive,

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north ...

. During the 1990s SENTRA started using the trading name Prospects Training and moved into further training areas including Construction. During the 00s Prospects purchased the Pegasus Training Centre in

, and changed the company name to Prospects Learning Foundation, trading as Prospects College. They then initially took over as trustees of Thorpe Bay School in Southend in 2006, moving its Southend centre to this location in 2010 and rebranding it Futures Community College. In 2007 they moved into new premises in Crompton Close, Basildon. In 2012 a new £10m centre in Basildon was opened next door to the existing Basildon centre. This was followed by a further centre on

in 2013. In 2015 Prospects College become the first new incorporated FE college in 20 years and was rebranded PROCAT. In January 2016 it was announced that the Southend Centre would close for the expansion of Futures College. In March 2017 it was announced that PROCAT had won the contract to manage the Transport for London Tunnelling & Underground Construction Academy (TUCA) which had originally been setup by the

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

project. In May 2018 PROCAT was told by the FE commissioner that they were unlikely to be able to deal with their financial difficulties alone and were told to merge by the end of 2018. In June 2018, David Sherlock, chairman of PROCAT announced that they had agreed to merge with

South Essex College South Essex College of Further and Higher Education, also known as South Essex College, is a further education college located over three main sites in Basildon, Southend-on-Sea and Grays in Essex, England. The college provides courses for studen ...

but stay an independent brand within the group specializing in technical, engineering and construction training. The new Stephenson Road campus of South Essex College was opened under the PROCAT brand.

References

External links

PROCAT Website - www.procat.ac.uk {{coord, 51.5809, 0.4487, type:edu_region:GB, display=title Educational institutions established in 1969 Further education colleges in Essex 1969 establishments in England