PEARSON, the world’s leading education company, has made a major commitment to Harlow’s Kao Park by announcing that it will be moving its 300 Harlow based staff into the new science & enterprise site. The move from the firm’s current Edinburgh Gate location is expected to take place in mid-2017.

The new site represents an investment of £25 million over the next ten years by the UK based global firm and continues an association with Harlow that goes back over 40 years.

The new site will host some of the company’s fastest growing divisions including teams working on its 3D artificial reality training tools and online systems for delivering university courses, as well as divisions of Pearson’s more traditional textbook publishing and qualification businesses.

Rod Bristow, Pearson’s President in the UK commented:

Pearson has a long standing commitment to Harlow, not just as a major local employer but as a part of the community through work like our partnership with the Sir Charles Kao University Technical College. I am therefore delighted to announce not only that Pearson is re-affirming its long-standing relationship with the town but also that we will shortly be moving into a new building better suited to our needs

Like a great many Pearson colleagues, I have happy memories of working in our Edinburgh Gate site and will be sorry to leave, however Kao Park will provide a state of the art new home for our business in Harlow. We look forward to being part of the exciting developments taking place there. I am also very grateful to Harlow’s MP, Rob Halfon, whose commitment and energy played an important part in our decision”.

Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow commented:

“Pearson is a wonderful and historical business to have in our town. I worked hard with Pearson to make sure they could keep their home here and I am hugely grateful to their UK President, Rod Bristow, for putting more investment into Harlow. They will now move into our Enterprise Zone with £25million of investment that will massively contribute to Harlow being a showcase for business, jobs and apprenticeships. Pearson is helping to build an even better Harlow, championing education and apprenticeships and bringing jobs and businesses back to our town.”