I did my first adult ed course when I was 16. It was a class titled “Learn to Touch Type” at Randwick Evening College (these Colleges were the forerunner of today’s Community Colleges) and I enrolled because I wanted to be able to type my assignments when I started university. In the next 50 years I’ve done dozens of other courses including several introductory languages, cooking, beekeeping, pottery, woodwork, welding, identifying Australian snakes, stained glass, first aid, bricklaying, plant propagation, photography and even beer making and vine appreciation.
Short, non-credit courses have satisfied my need for information and skills outside my normal job training and academic qualifications. Learning with others in a relaxed non-threatening social environment can be fun and weekly classes are a nice way to spread out the challenge of learning something new.
Allan Ellis – Director, ACE Community Colleges Ltd.
