Catten College is a private training company, based at the Arena Leisure Centre in Colchester. Established in 1983, we are a family run business providing both private and funded NVQ's in Business & Administration, Childcare, Care, Hairdressing, I.A.G, Sport and Retail in the North East Essex area.

As part of the Hairdressing learning programme, we have a training salon in Colchester open to the public during term time only.  Our students carry out all services under the guidance and supervision of our experienced hairdressing assessors.  We also operate a salon as part of The Harwich School Sixth Form College.  The College works with over 100 salons, including the Award Winning Feathers Group

The company aims are to provide high quality training to the broader community by attracting funding through various government initiatives and other means.   We offer Work Based Learning Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships,, Train to Gain and Train for Your Future, all financed through the Essex Learning and Skills Council. We access these funds as a partner in the Braintree, Colchester and Tendring Consortium (BCT) which is a partnership of good quality, local, training providers and an FE College.  We believe working closely with a diverse range of local partnerships and organisations allows our learners to benefit from the lessons we learn from our partners and offer various forms of funded learning.  As such our learner ages range between 14 and 70!  One such partnership is Advantage East,  an ESF project with Ixion (formerly Business Link).  In addition, we work with local organisations such as Colchester United FC providing vocational education for the Youth Team and national organisations such as Livability (formerly John Grooms) to provide training in Care.

Catten College also can provide a wide range of Short Courses, for individuals or employers, at our Centre or In-House.  These are wide ranging and new courses are added regularly.  There are courses related to Health & Safety, Care, Management and Hairdressing plus many more.

We also run Alternative Curriculum projects with schools across Essex, including Colchester, the Tendring area and Maldon, to provide students at these schools opportunities to learn about vocations they are considering and to gain qualifications in those areas.