AI courses — the park

Inside the AI courses shop at ParkSyde, drawn in the park’s own low, warm dawn light. A still pool of light lies at the centre of the room, holding the dawn. Nine trees stand spread around it, each mirrored faintly on the floor beneath it, and two lamps on posts flank a footpath of light leading in. Near the pool: three chairs, drawn up to the work and none of them square to anything, a jacket over the back of one of them, a desk with its screen lit, the trays of paperwork, out in the open, a lit screen on its wheeled stand, the one the class sits facing — nobody is behind anything, and nothing stands between them and you. Spread out across the room, each on its own post, are six brass push buttons. Their labels, floating over them, read: What it costs; Who it’s for; Where to start; Before anything is booked; Ask for a time; Reach a person. Pressing one walks you over and the shop tells you that one thing.

What it costs

$176 · per person, per 2-hour session · incl GST
A session is two hours. The ten-week program is ten of them — $1,760 for the whole run.

Community rate: $88 a person, a session, GST included — half the standard seat, and $880 for the whole ten weeks. It is for a concession card, a volunteer, or somebody coming along with a community group. You do not have to prove anything to be given it: asking is enough, and nobody will ask you why.
At your workplace
Why there are two: The community rate is half, and it is not a hardship fund with a form attached. It is priced in from the start, because a room with only the people who could pay full freight in it is a worse room.
Schools, workplaces and whole teams: Not sold by the seat, and not sold from this page. A class or a team runs on a licence for the whole ten weeks, and that has a door of its own with the numbers on it.
What certification there is: A ParkSyde Certificate of Competence — and it is earned, not handed out. It is issued to people who reach the competencies and present a finished piece of work at the end. Behind it: eight competencies mapped to the Australian Core Skills Framework and the Digital Literacy Skills Framework — the same national frameworks accredited training maps to — with evidence recorded at three levels along the way.
What it is not: A nationally recognised VET qualification. Only a registered training organisation can issue those, ParkSyde is not one, and we will never blur that line. What is missing is the registration, not the substance.

Individuals, groups & workplaces
Beginner-friendly

See all fees

Who it’s for

Practical AI skills you can actually use. Plain-language, hands-on, and pitched to wherever you're starting from — this room sells a seat, to a person, one at a time.

A school, a workplace or a whole team is a different arrangement — that has its own page, with its own numbers on it.

Who we'd rather hear from: Somebody who wants to use it on Monday, more than somebody who wants to sound impressive about it. Being late to this is the normal way to arrive, not a disadvantage to apologise for.

Where to start

Tell us where you are starting from — including "nowhere", which is the most common answer and an entirely good one.

Three places to start that cost nothing

None of these are ours and none of them are affiliated with us. They are here because they are free, they are published by people who have to stand behind them, and they are the three we would point a friend at. Chosen 14 September 2026. “Free” is the most perishable word on this page — if one of these has moved or started charging, tell us and we will take it down the same day.

Elements of AI — University of Helsinki: What the words mean, with no maths and no coding. Six chapters, worked at your own pace, free including the certificate. It is the one to press first if the honest answer to “where are you starting from” was nowhere.
Machine Learning Crash Course — Google: How the machines are actually trained, with the exercises run in your browser. Some Python in it. Published free by Google and used inside Google, which is a different kind of evidence from a testimonial.
Anthropic Academy — Anthropic: Working with an AI assistant properly rather than poking at it. Self-paced, free. Declared plainly: ParkSyde builds with Anthropic’s tooling and credits it elsewhere on this site, so this one is not a neutral pick and you should weigh it knowing that.

If you work through one of those and then want somebody to build something with, that is what the ten weeks are for. If you work through one and decide the subject is not for you, the free one just saved you a fee, which is a good outcome and we would rather you had it.

Ten weeks, two hours a week. Two weeks on why, two on what, two on how, three on building the thing, and the tenth week is the showcase.

What it is built on: Eight ParkSyde AI competencies, mapped to the Australian Core Skills Framework and the Digital Literacy Skills Framework, and following the same understand → apply → create arc as the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Students.
What is not written down: What sits inside each of those blocks. There is no syllabus published on this site and we would rather hand you the gap than a guess at it. Ask on the call and you get the real answer, including whether what you are after is something we can actually teach you.

Before anything is booked

We talk through what suits you. Nothing is charged until you have agreed to it.

What you'll get back: A straight number, and a plain answer about whether what you are after is something we can actually teach you. If it isn't, we would rather say so than sell you a session.

Ask for a time

Ask for a time to talk it through

Reach a person

Ring 0467 937 659 Send a message

Reach us on 0467 937 659.

Not able to wait? These lines are open right now.

Lifeline · 13 11 14 13YARN · 13 92 76 Emergency · 000

How this room works

What you get back is a straight number, and a plain answer about whether what you are after is something we can actually teach you.
If it isn’t, we would rather say so than sell you a seat.
We would rather hear from somebody who wants to use it on Monday than somebody who wants to sound impressive about it.
Being late to this is the normal way to arrive, not a disadvantage.
What things cost is posted on the wall, not quoted after a conversation.
The way back out to the park is at the bottom of this screen.

Otto — a ParkSyde character. Not a person, and not a way to reach one.