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Purpose - To investigate the effectiveness of one-off short continuing adult education courses for expanding the penetration of sustainable development education beyond current tertiary students. Design/methodology/approach - Pre- and post-course questionnaires are used to evaluate the effectiveness of a series of short training courses on environment and sustainability issues conducted by the Centre for Environmental Strategy for a UK government department. Findings - These short continuing education courses were effective at meeting their specific aims of increasing awareness and understanding of sustainability issues, with longer courses being more beneficial and providing qualitatively different experiences. Learning on sustainable development was maximised by overtly drawing on the collective past learning experiences and knowledge of participants through carefully facilitated discussion that encourages the sharing of and building upon this knowledge base. Practical implications - If the training effectiveness of short continuing education courses in sustainable development is to be effective then such courses need to exploit existing knowledge bases so that limited time resources are used for maximum benefit through teaching methodologies that promote a constructivist learning environment. Originality/value - This paper examines a significant means for maximising the effectiveness short continuing education courses in sustainability. Ensuring the effectiveness of such courses is critical to increasing the penetration of sustainable development education in higher education.