News

Open for business at Southend Centre

The University has launched its new learning and business outreach centre in Southend, aimed at providing innovative new facilities to promote access programmes, professional development and economic growth opportunities in the Thames Gateway.

The Southend Centre Team celebrate the launch

The Southend Centre, based in the High Street, boasts an innovation laboratory, or i-lab, providing IT-based space for creative thinking and problem solving.

It also includes a Trevor Baylis 'break-out' room to help innovators and entrepreneurs develop their ideas into business opportunities, and a hot-desking room for start-up businesses.

The Centre was launched by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ivor Crewe, at a breakfast reception attended by more than 50 representatives of business, educational and economic development organisations in the region.

Inventor Trevor Baylis was also present to explain more about the aim of the 'break-out' area.

The launch was marked by the release of 800 balloons in the University's colours, outside the Centre in Princess Caroline House.

The exciting new project allows the University, working with partners in south Essex, to provide new learning opportunities to underpin the regeneration of the Thames Gateway.

The Centre has already launched its first courses, in Project Management and Management Studies, which combine on-line learning with tutorials and workshops held at Princess Caroline House. A course in e-working is being developed.

Learning Train pioneers e-learning for commuters

A pioneering e-learning programme launched by the University's Southend Centre will soon allow London-bound rail commuters to learn as the wheels turn using specially-developed internet links.

The Mayor of Southend Alan Crystall and Town Clerk George Krawiec board the Learning Train with Professor Ivor Crewe.??

The Learning Train project, backed by £200,000 of funding from the East of England Development Agency, will be piloted on a First Great Eastern Southend to Liverpool Street service in the autumn.

The Southend Centre is developing e-learning programmes aimed at commuters, while the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering in Colchester is developing efficient internet connections for use on the railway.

The project will allow commuters to use their travel time to improve and update their skills, in areas such as project management and IT, and improve opportunities for continual professional development in south Essex.

University Director of Business Enterprise and Innovation, Linda Jones, said: 'The potential uptake is huge: every day 45,000 people travel into Liverpool Street Station on Great Eastern alone.

'Adult learner participation in south Essex is among the lowest in the region. This project will help to develop new learning provision and culture in the Thames Gateway.'

The project will be piloted in a specially-adapted First Great Eastern railway carriage, with a group of commuters employed in a range of professional jobs in small, medium and large companies.

If the trial is successful, it is hoped to make it available through other train operators in the region, with the potential for it to roll out commuters nationwide.

Plan for multi-million pound arts facility launched

Representatives from the University joined more than 200 dignitaries from all over the country at Colchester's Town Hall recently to launch a partnership created to support the design and construction of a flagship arts facility in Colchester.

Some of the partners and dignitaries at the launch

The venture, which will see a £16million innovative visual arts centre open within four years, is being led by Firstsite, based at the Minories art galleryin Colchester. Firstsite New Space is the working title for the ambitious partnership formed to provide a venue of regional, national and international significance.

The new facility will provide screening and conference facilities, gallery and workshop space, areas for school and community outreach projects, creative play areas as well a permanent home for the University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art. Guests at the launch included Dr Neil Cox, head of the Department of Art History and Theory, and the Registrar, Dr Tony Rich.

Firstsite Director, Katherine Wood, said: 'A new purpose-built visual arts space designed for engaging with contemporary art in the 21st century is needed for the East of England. We must look ahead to create a flagship architectural project that can capitalise on Firstsite's strengths to create a visitor experience that works socially, economically and culturally.'

This summer a competition to design the new structure is being launched in conjunction with the Royal Institute of British Architects. The new facility will be built on part of the current bus station site and is expected to be completed by 2006. The University is jointly funding the venture along with Arts Council England, the East of England Development Agency, Essex County and Colchester Borough Council, and Arts Council England East.

Also in the printed May edition of Wyvern:

• Quizzes, cakes and red hair
• Law students learn about military peace-keeping
• Festival of colours