EVEN though basic education is called basic but learning definitely doesn’t stop there. Learning is for a lifetime. Even if you’re already an expert in infectious diseases working every day at the lab of the USAMRIID or United States Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, you need to consult once in a while with your counterparts from the WHO, CDC, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic, among others. Some of this learning is more mandatory in nature. Thus, we have what is termed as continuing education. Mandatory continuing education is common among all professionals.

Let’s say for instance that one is an architect. One’s license will be suspended after five years if he or she doesn’t enroll in a program on recent architecture updates. That kind of program typically runs two days anyway and after its culmination, participants will get a certificate from the body which regulates your profession whichever country you come from. And here’s another catch. If you are tired or if you’re too busy to go to a weekend seminar, then take one online. Just like the traditional seminar setting, an online course on updates about your profession also takes two days to accomplish.

This is actually more practical for people who are working during the day or even during weekends. All they need to do is log in to the Internet and secure the course syllabus as well as the corresponding quizzes for that single day and send back the answers to the quiz. They will also get the certificate either emailed to them or mailed as a hard copy. But still, there are other forms of continuing education.

If you’re in a developed country like the Philippines, you will encounter a program leading to a bachelor’s degree in Development Communication. It is under the College of Agriculture in whatever university you are enrolled in. The program is aimed for students to be trained in communications so they can use that medium to propagate development in that country. After a student has graduated from that certain program, he or she has the option to continue with two more academic years of studies leading to a master’s degree. He or she may perhaps take the program leading to a master’s degree in technology communications management. This is a relatively trendy program because information technology is the buzzword nowadays.

However, the emerging revolution nowadays next to the information technology revolution is the wellness revolution or the propagation of the health industry. That’s why many persons would like to take up nursing studies. After having been a nurse, they still want to pursue programs leading to a master’s degree in nursing. That is continuing adult education. But even a person with an alltogether diverse field can migrate to another one. There is an accountant I know who has taken short courses in reflexology, massage therapy and physical therapy. He is now an instructor in massage therapy, acupressure and reflexology while at the same time earning in his main livelihood as an accountant. That’s the biggest benefit in continuing adult education.