The School of Continuing Education was founded in 1989 on the basis of the Exploration and Development Training Centre established in 1981 under the sponsorship of the Chinese Government and the United Nations. It was formerly named Continuing Educational Center and changed to the present name in 1993 with the approval of CNPC.

The purpose the college is to provide further education to technicians, engineers, administrators and all kinds of managers, engaged in the research or management in the fields of geology, drilling, development, well testing and well logging, mainly from CNPC, Sinopec, and COOC. The core programs offered cover petroleum geological exploration, geophysics, drilling engineering, oil production engineering, petroleum processing, petrochemistry, petroleum lease machinery, mechanical and electronic engineering, petroleum storage and transportation, environmental protection engineering, production automation, industrial management engineering, industrial foreign trade, marketing, and the English Language. Since the establishment of the college in 1984, 4556 have participated in its continuing educational programs. In addition, the college has successfully organized 12 academic conferences and two international symposia. Now the college has been recognized as one of the most important institutes for advanced engineers and technicians, particularly in the petroleum industry and is able to accept 500 trainees annually.

The academic staff of the college consist of university professors from different departments, senior engineers from various oil companies with great industrial experiences and researchers from several research institutes.