Continuing education
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Continuing education, also known as lifelong education or lifelong learning is an all-encompassing term within a broad list of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada.
Recognized forms of post-secondary learning activities within the domain include: degree credit courses by non-traditional students, non-degree career training, college remediation, workforce training, and formal personal enrichment courses (both on-campus and online).[1][2]
General continuing education is similar to adult education, at least in being intended for adult learners, especially those beyond traditional undergraduate college or university age.
Frequently, in the United States and Canada continuing education courses are delivered through a division or school of continuing education of a college or university known sometimes as the university extension or extension school. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development argued, however, that continuing education should be "'fully integrated into institutional life rather than being often regarded as a separate and distinctive operation employing different staff' if it is to feed into mainstream programmes and be given the due recognition deserved by this type of provision".[3]
Georgetown University, Michigan State University, and the University of Denver have benefited from non-credit programs as it relates to strengthening partnerships with corporations and government agencies, helping to inform and shape the curriculum for degree programs, and generating revenue to support the academic enterprise.[4]
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History
In the United Kingdom, Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education was founded in 1878,[5] and the Institute of Continuing Education of Cambridge University dates to the 1873.[6]
The Chautauqua Institution, originally the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly, was founded in 1874 "as an educational experiment in out-of-school, vacation learning. It was successful and broadened almost immediately beyond courses for Sunday school teachers to include academic subjects, music, art and physical education."[7]
Cornell University was among higher education institutions that began offering university-based continuing education, primarily to teachers, through extension courses in the 1870s. As noted in the Cornell Era of February 16, 1877, the university offered a "Tour of the Great Lakes" program for "teachers and others" under the direction of Professor Theodore B. Comstock, head of Cornell's department of geology.[8]
The University of Wisconsin–Madison began its continuing education program in 1907.[9][10] The New School for Social Research, founded in 1919, was initially devoted to adult education.[11] In 1969, Empire State College, a unit of the State University of New York, was the first institution in the US to exclusively focus on providing higher education to adult learners. In 1976 the University of Florida created its own Division of Continuing Education and most courses were offered on evenings or weekends to accommodate the schedules of working students.[12]
The method of delivery of continuing education can include traditional types of classroom lectures and laboratories. However, many continuing education programs make heavy use of distance education, which not only includes independent study, but can also include videotaped material, broadcast programming or online education which has more recently dominated the distance learning community.
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For professionals
Within the domain of continuing education, professional continuing education is a specific learning activity generally characterized by the issuance of a certificate or continuing education units (CEU) for the purpose of documenting attendance at a designated seminar or course of instruction. Licensing bodies in a number of fields (such as teaching and healthcare) impose continuing education requirements on members who hold licenses to continue practicing a particular profession. These requirements are intended to encourage professionals to expand their foundations of knowledge and stay up-to-date on new developments.
Depending on the field, these requirements may be satisfied through college or university coursework, extension courses or conferences and seminars attendance. Although individual professions may have different standards, the most widely accepted standard, developed by the International Association for Continuing Education & Training, is that ten contact hours equals one Continuing Education Unit.[13] Not all professionals use the CEU convention. For example, the American Psychological Association accredits sponsors of continuing education and uses simply a CE approach. In contrast to the CEU, the CE credit is typically one CE credit for each hour of contact.
In the spring of 2009, Eduventures, a higher education consulting firm, released the results of a study that illustrated that the recession had made a significant impact on the views of prospective continuing education students. A survey of 1,500 adults who planned to enroll in a course or program within the next two years determined that while nearly half of respondents believed that the value of education had risen due to the recession, over two-thirds said the state of the economy had affected their plans to pursue continuing education.[14]
The World Bank's 2019 World Development Report on the future of work [15] explains that flexible learning opportunities at universities and adult learning programs that allow workers to retrain and retool are vital in order for labor markets to adjust to the future of work.
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Source: "Continuing education", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 15th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_education.
Further Reading

Community college

Distance education

Adult education

Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary

Higher education in Newfoundland and Labrador

Higher education in Alberta

Higher education in Prince Edward Island

Higher education in Nunavut

University of Washington Continuum College

Open Learning Institute of British Columbia
References
- ^ McLean, S. (2007). "About us: Expressing the purpose of university continuing education in Canada". Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education. 33 (2): 65–86. doi:10.21225/D5CS3K.
- ^ Kirby, D.; Curran, V.; Hollett, A. (2009). "Non-formal adult learning programs at Canadian post-secondary institutions: Trends, issues, and practices". Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education. 35 (2): 63–86. doi:10.21225/D55P42.
- ^ Schütze, Hans G.; Slowley, Maria, eds. (2012). Global Perspectives on Higher Education and Lifelong Learners. NY, New York: Routledge. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-415-67507-9.
- ^ Millard, E. (2014). "Extra credit for non-credit", University Business. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
- ^ "The history of continuing education at Oxford". Department for Continuing Education. University of Oxford. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
- ^ Jarvis, Peter. Adult Education and Lifelong Learning: Theory and Practice, p. 318 (Routledge 2004).
- ^ "Our History". Archived from the original on November 9, 2013.
- ^ Press, Cornell University (March 31, 1877). "Cornell Era V. 09 1876-1877" – via ecommons.cornell.edu.
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: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Schugurensky, Daniel. "1907: The 'Wisconsin Idea' Brings the University to the Community". History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century. The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
- ^ UW–Extension Chancellor's Office. "Highlight History of Extension in Wisconsin 1862 to 1999". About Us. The University of Wisconsin–Extension. Archived from the original on May 29, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) New School Archives: Course Catalogs - ^ "Office of Distance Learning - University of Florida". dce.ufl.edu.
- ^ "The IACET Standard: Continuing Education Units (CEUs)". International Association for Continuing Education and Training. Archived from the original on October 17, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
- ^ [1].The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 2, 2009
- ^ World Bank World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work.
Further reading
- Wilson, A. L., & Hayes, E. (Eds.). (2009). Handbook of adult and continuing education. John Wiley & Sons. Chicago
External links
- University Professional and Continuing Education Association
- International Association for Continuing Education & Training
- Association for Continuing Higher Education
- American Association for Adult and Continuing Education
- Canadian Association for University Continuing Education
- Engage-To-Excel Initiative For Continuing Education
- Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education contains many researched articles about the field, in French and English.
Categories
- All Wikipedia articles written in American English
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- Articles needing additional references from September 2011
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- Articles with short description
- CS1: Julian–Gregorian uncertainty
- CS1 errors: missing periodical
- CS1 maint: archived copy as title
- Continuing education
- Educational stages
- Personal development
- Short description matches Wikidata
- Tertiary education
- Universities and colleges
- Use American English from February 2019
- Use mdy dates from February 2019
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