The BRIT School, London, UK

The BRIT School is an exception to the others on our list in that it is not a third level institution. Rather, it caters for exceptionally talented fourteen to nineteen year olds determined to make a career for themselves in the performing and creative arts.

However this Croydon-based secondary is not your typical 'stage school'; firstly, it's non fee paying. And secondly, students must follow their full-time vocational or academic courses to completion, whatever their outside-of-school commitments.

Funded with support from the British Record Industry Trust (where the BRIT in the title derives from), this school has industry connections like no other and - in recent years - has produced some of the most successful recording artists in the world.

Previous alumni include: Adele, Leona Lewis, Imogen Heap, The Kooks, Amy Winehouse and Jessie J