ACE

Adult Community Education

FREE short courses – up to 120 hours

Adult and Community Education (ACE) programmes provide community-based education, foundation skills, and pathways into other learning opportunities. Programmes can assist learners with re-engagement to education and employment pathways. We offer the following programmes at our Christchurch, Ashburton, Timaru, and Oamaru education centres:

  • Y•Orientation – support to prepare learners who will be joining our next intake of Youth Guarantee education programmes
  • Y•Steps to the Future – support to transition from one of our other education programmes into the world of employment
  • Y•Licence – support to pass your Learner Licence Theory test

ACE courses are open enrolment (no set intake dates) but eligibility criteria apply, so get in touch today to see if you qualify!

We’re proud to have received the Dyslexia-Friendly Quality Mark for 2023-2026 – one of only nine tertiary education providers in NZ! This recognises that our Y•Education learning centres in Christchurch, Ashburton, Timaru and Oamaru are safe places for neurodiverse learners, where they are understood and their needs can be supported. For more information about the Dyslexia-Friendly Quality Mark, click the link in Further Links on this page.

YMCA Provider Registration Details:

The National Council of YMCAs has been an NZQA-registered Private Training Establishment (PTE) since 1991 and is a NZQA Category 1 provider. Youth Guarantee-funded programmes of study are NZQA approved. The national Council of YMCAs of New Zealand does not declare any known material conflicts of interest of any of the governing members of the PTE and any interests the member has in organisations in the education or immigration sector that provide goods or services to tertiary students.

This service is an NZQA-approved sub-contracted provision of The National Council of YMCAs [provider number 9388]. The National Council of YMCAs holds a Category 1 NZQA Education Evaluation & Review (EER) Status (2024); NZQA is (a) highly confident in this provider’s ability to self-assess and (b) highly confident in this provider’s educational performance.