Massey launches new life-long learning centre

Dog behaviour, digital illustration, home finance, employment mediation, whānau development and history from a Hollywood perspective are among topics available via Massey University’s new lifelong learning initiative PaCE (Professional and Continuing Education), launched at the Albany campus last week.

The new programme aims to connect Massey’s academic expertise with people seeking new skills and professional development as well as with those wanting to ‘learn for learning’s sake’ without the requirement to do assignments and exams.

Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey told the gathering the PaCE initiative is driven by Massey’s desire to provide new ways of learning for a diverse array of students and learning needs.

“We are matching what we do here at Massey with the knowledge needs of people in the workforce and the community. We are not a traditional kind of university, we are a change-embracing university,” Mr Maharey says.

“We want to shape the future of the new New Zealand and take the best of what New Zealand has to offer to the world. We can do this because of our reach, with three campuses – in Albany, the Manawatu and Wellington – and distance learning.”

PaCE director Andrea Flavel says the offerings for continuing education and professional development draw on Massey’s strengths and areas of specialisation, including agriculture and horticulture, arts and humanities, communication, design, fine arts, food and nutrition, information technology and computing, kaupapa Māori, land and the environment, languages, music, nursing and health, sciences, social work, teaching and education, and veterinary science and animal behaviour.

PaCE offers customised short courses for industry professionals, such as Life Cycle Management and Whānau Whanake – led by Professor Sir Mason Durie for practitioners working in whānau development, with the first two-day course at the Albany campus, June 30 – July 1. It also offers the Campus Passport for access to a selected course or lecture without needing to sit an exam or complete assessments, as well as English language and university preparation programmes for international students, and conference services.

“For a small fee you get access to learning for general interest or as preparation for future study,” Ms Flavel says.

Mr Maharey said New Zealand has evolved from a mono-cultural, commodity-based, low education to an increasingly urban, multicultural and creative society where people wanted to learn in different ways.
For more information click on http://pace.massey.ac.nz