This is a difficult question to answer because the term “continuing education” can mean different things depending on the institution. All continuing education courses are intended for people who have completed at least a high school diploma. Continuing education courses are usually designed to supplement the knowledge of someone who has already been trained for a specific job — rather than teaching them the basics of their job, they are designed to continue that person’s education in their specific field.
One way to categorize the various types of courses is how much credit they provide, if any. We can see the following types of continuing education courses when we look at courses like this: Courses for Continuing Education Units, degree/certificate courses, and non-credit courses are available.
Courses that offer Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are a very specific type of course. Doctors and nurses, for example, are required to take a certain number of CEU courses each year to maintain their licenses. CEU courses are typically offered hospitals, unions, and other organizations associated with CEU-required professions.
Degree/certificate courses provide credit hours that can be applied toward a degree or certificate at an institution of higher learning. A computer programmer, for example, might attend a university and enroll in a night school course in a new computer language to expand his skills. Even if that was not the goal of the person taking the course, the credits earned from completing it could be used to earn a degree or certificate from that university.
Non-credit continuing education courses don’t offer CEUs and can’t be used to earn a degree or certificate. Non-credit courses are available from a variety of sources and for a variety of reasons. Participants may take the courses to learn more about a new skill or technique they’ve heard about, or they may be required to take the course their employer. Some businesses will fund non-credit courses to help customers learn more about a product and how to use it. In any case, non-credit courses are typically shorter and less formal than other types.
Adult education courses and continuing education courses are sometimes lumped together. Both types of courses follow a similar format: they are offered at times when most adults are not working, such as evenings and weekends, and they are designed with an older adult mindset in mind. Adult education courses, on the other hand, frequently focus on remedial areas and assisting students in obtaining the equivalent of a high school diploma; continuing education courses, on the other hand, assume that the student already has a high level of understanding of the subject matter and build upon it.