Vocation-based further education in south Essex is set to receive another massive shot in the arm.

It was revealed last week Prospects College is building a new £5million centre of vocational excellence near the Festival Leisure Park, in Basildon, in addition to the £20million new college planned for the grounds of Thorpe Bay School, in Southend.

Now the Learning and Skills Council is offering multi-million pound contracts to organisations willing to expand vocation-based education for 16 to 19-year-olds across Basildon and Thurrock.

Two organisations will be chosen.

They could be private businesses, voluntary organisations, or existing colleges.

The council is inviting organisations to submit proposals explaining how they would make the most of massive promised investment into non-academic education.

Examples might include training for the builders, engineers, electricians and carpenters of tomorrow.

The organisation which wins the Basildon contract must specialise in sport and recreation, business administration and financial services, engineering, social care and medical technology training.

The Thurrock winner must concentrate on creative and cultural skills, retail and customer service, and construction.

Janice Logie, director of the Learning and Skills Council Essex, said: "We can't say exactly how much will be spent on the schemes, but it is millions and could be over £10million.

"As far as we know this is going to be the biggest investment of its kind in further education that has been seen in this area.

"We decided to make the selection process for whoever runs the new services into a competition, because we want to make sure the applicants submit as competitive and high-quality proposals as possible. We want the best of the best."

The competition follows a strategic review by the Learning and Skills Council, which concluded further education in Essex was failing to meet the needs of young people or prospective employers.

Miss Logie said: "There are lots of young people who don't stay on after 16 at the moment.

"They either go off the radar or go into jobs that don't offer accredited training.

"We want to put a stop to that and one way is to channel more of those people suited to it into vocational training."

She said the race was on to train as many young people as possible, to take up the challenge of accommodating massive development expected through the Thames Gateway scheme and the 2012 Olympics.

She said: "We are setting out on the biggest regeneration scheme in Europe, which will mean an awful lot of extra jobs.

"They say Thames Gateway will attract 10,000 people to this area over the next few years.

"If we don't train young people from south Essex properly, all the new jobs which are going to be created will go outside the region, which is no good at all."

The competition will be officially launched next Tuesday.

For more details, write to the Learning and Skills Council Essex, Redwing House, Hedgerows Business Park, Colchester Road, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 5PB.