About us
Our courses are open to everyone, regardless of your previous education or your location.
We offer hundreds of in-person short courses in Sydney, and we offer interactive, real-time online courses that you can participate in from anywhere. We also work with organisations to provide corporate training for their staff.
Our goal is to provide you skills and knowledge that you can use right away. Whether your goal is learning for your professional development, or learning simply for the love of it, we have a course for you.
In the modern age of the 60-year curriculum, where life-long learning has become a necessity, short courses can give you the motivation to continually engage with the world and acquire new skills as life-changes demand it.
Our courses are continually updated to ensure they remain current, relevant and are consistently high quality. We also now partner with Schools and Faculties across campus so that members of the public can get access to University-quality content outside of regular degree programs. We hope to give you a uniquely ‘Sydney’ learning experience and that you too can join our learning community.
With classes that cover a diverse range of interests and designed for all stages of life, you can learn new skills, gain new insights or discover your untapped creativity – our courses can make it possible.
Our history
The Centre for Continuing Education (CCE), founded in 1984 by the University of Sydney, provides thousands of short courses across a broad range of areas. Many courses are run in the evening, ideal for working professionals who are keen to learn new skills, gain new insights or unleash creativity. From business and management to art history and languages, CCE courses are designed to develop skills and knowledge in any chosen professional, personal or academic area of interest.
1889
A series of Extension Lectures is introduced, modelled on the English University system, with the rationale that the position of universities can be greatly strengthened if they extend the curriculum beyond the core structure taught to enrolled students.
1892
The Extension Board is established: Lectures are focused on literature, history and a wider range of subjects open to all. A joint committee for tutorial classes is also introduced.
1914
The NSW Government makes a special annual grant to the University of Sydney for the employment of a lecturer and organiser of tutorial classes. Non-award classes are introduced for industrial workers in Sydney, Burwood and Wollongong, thereby catering to a much wider population.
1963
A new Department of Adult Education is founded, and the structure of adult education is remodelled to meet the changing needs emerging in the Australian community. Most participants in continuing education are well-educated and looking to broaden their interests.
1977
The Board of Adult Education is established. Government funding to the University is reduced, which responds by establishing a working party to report on ways in which adult and continuing education might be maintained and developed.
1984
The Centre for Continuing Education is established to provide “education, whether vocational or general, that is undertaken after an interval following the end of initial continuous education”. The work of the Centre extends to the discussion groups scheme, special discussion courses, the current affairs bulletin, radio and television programs prepared within the Centre and other external activities consistent with its main objective. It also provides administrative assistance to the University in organising courses, lectures, seminars or tutorials under the umbrella of ‘continuing education’.
2003
The operational scope of the CCE is further broadened to providing the continuing education activities, the expertise of the University in teaching and research to the members of the community; develop a closer relationship between industry, business, the professions and the University, through the provision of continuing education activities.
2009
The 25th Anniversary of the Centre for Continuing Education. An established provider of learning excellence to a broad range of community, corporate, and academic sectors, CCE looks towards the future with a commitment to community access to the University of Sydney and lifelong learning for all.
2020
In response to the Covid19 pandemic, CCE rapidly pivots towards the digitisation of course materials and classrooms. CCE courses now reach people not just around Australia, but all over the world, with a growing number of people joining courses remotely. Face-to-face courses continue, but the events of 2020 give CCE the opportunity to become a pioneer in the provision of real-time, interactive digital learning solutions in non-award education.