The Centre for Continuing Education and Extension Services: A Legacy of Excellence and Access to Life-long Learning

A review of the history and evolution of the Centre for Continuing Education and Extension Services and the various programmes it has developed to support the work of the College of The Bahamas.


INTRODUCTION
This document examines the concept of education in its broadest sense, and gives particular focus to the idea of continuing education within the Bahamian context of the College of The Bahamas (COB).
The great educator and philosopher, John Dewey, in his work, Democracy and Education, postulates that the term education must be reconceived, not as merely a preparation for maturity but as a continuous growth of the mind and a continuous illumination of life.In a sense, the school can give us only the instrumentalities of mental growth; the rest depends upon an absorption and interpretation of experiences.
Real education comes after we leave school so there is no reason why it should stop before death.Dewey succinctly encapsulates what lifelong learning ought to be in all civilized societies, given its importance as an element in the process of continuing education.
What is continuing education?Jefferson (1989) suggests that continuing education may be defined as any kind of learning or teaching that extends or builds upon previous experiences in the same general realm of knowledge.It is a process through which individuals are provided the means to meet their needs for further personal or professional growth.It refers to all activities and efforts by which individuals upgrade their knowledge, skills, abilities, competencies or understanding in areas of specialization.
In The Bahamas, prior to 1974, continuing education developed in an essentially ad hoc fashion in response to perceived needs.The result was that a collection of diverse institutions, both local and foreign, offered programmes in a largely uncoordinated fashion.
These institutions were located primarily in New Providence and Grand Bahama.
In the other Family Islands, however, there was a paucity of opportunities for continuing education.In order to address the aforementioned challenges that existed throughout the archipelago, the Centre for Continuing Education and Extension Services (CEES) was given the responsibility of working with the Schools in The College to provide a wide range of extension services at various levels and in various fields, particularly on the Family Islands (Rahming-Nwosa, 2004).

CEES, 1970 to 1995
In the 1970's, veteran adult educator, Arthur Roach, led continuing education at the College of The Bahamas.Programmes centered on the coordination of public education units called Evening Institutes which were located in communities both in New Providence and the Family Islands.During that era, Evening Institutes were the primary source of adult continuing education in The Bahamas.Despite these facilities, however, there was a great need for more efficient and effective ways of facilitating the entry of adults into COB's degree-level programmes.This posed a challenge because, for various reasons, many adults in The Bahamas had not completed high school and were therefore unable to meet the matriculation requirements of these programmes.Thus, in an effort to examine this pressing need for college preparation for adults in the local community, The College undertook a special research project in 1977.

CEES, Northern Bahamas Campus
In January 2001, Marlene Henry was appointed Assistant Director for CEES at the Northern Bahamas Campus (NBC).She held this position until she retired in December 2013.Marlene Henry was replaced by Denise Sherman in January 2014.Prior to her appointment, there were no dedicated personnel for the Centre and CEES subsisted with Academic Affairs.The Grand Bahama community knew very little, if anything, about CEES and what it offered.The primary objective then was to reacquaint, and in some cases, introduce CEES to the Grand Bahama community.Ms. Henry's efforts were fruitful as they resulted in numerous offerings in professional and personal development as well as academic upgrading.Ms. Henry can be credited with the development of the precollege preparatory programme BUTAS.
In Fall 2001, major initiatives were made to increase the quantity and diversity of the courses offered; bring CEES registration, billing and collection procedures in line with the mainstream College practices.Over the years CEES has undergone many changes to improve the quality of its product.Programmes such as Industrial Management for the Grand Bahama Ship Yard, and Engineering Skills for the Freeport Container Port, have been designed and or tailored and implemented to meet specific needs of industries on the island.CEES has greatly impacted the Grand Bahama community.It offers a second chance to traditional students who do not meet the necessary requirements to enter a degree programme and it also provides opportunities to professionals wanting to refresh and or upgrade for job advancement.

Conclusion
There is no doubt that the College of The Bahamas, Centre for Continuing Education and Extension Services has provided access to higher education to a myriad of individuals throughout The Bahamas.It is envisioned that with the expansion of Distance Education, CEES will be poised to offer courses and programmes not only to individuals in the archipelago but also to the global community.
Under Peet, the first Family Island Centre began operation in Exuma with Jennifer Kettell serving as its Coordinator.Inez Peet can also be credited for implementing the distance education mode of delivery on a national scale at CEES.During 1984-1987, she and Dr Eleanor Thompson spearheaded an Organization of American States project that offered academic upgrading via distance learning to teachers on selected islands, including Eleuthera, Andros and Grand Bahama in The Bahamas.In November 2013, CEES was restructured to better meet the needs of its clients.The Personal Development Department and the Career Institute were merged with the Professional Development Department to form the Professional and Personal Development and Career Institute.Other Departments include: Academic Upgrading, Distance Education and CEES Grand Bahama.