Partnership for Peace Training and Education Centres hold tenth commandants' conference

NATO School Commandant, US Colonel Mark Baines, chaired the meeting. “I believe this conference should have two objectives: … getting acquainted with one another in order to better understand personal relationships, missions and capabilities [and] identify specific areas of cooperation and tangible subjects for the working groups to proceed”, he said in his opening remarks.

The Commandants agreed on the following recommendations:

• establish cooperation in developing common activities, to include the use of NATO Education and Individual Training Management System for course development;
• provide support for Individual Partnership Action Plan countries and for PfP Training and Education Centres candidates;
• identify the way ahead on sharing Lessons Learned;
• continue development of Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) and development of Non-Commissioned Officers training.

PfP Education and Training Centres

Since 1999, PfP Education and Training Centres have offered training and education opportunities to Allies and Partners. Each Centre has a different area of expertise that varies from interoperability and fight against terrorism to defence reform and Peace Support Operation training.

In 2008 the fifteen Centres offered training and education opportunities to some six thousand students, via residence courses and Mobile Education and Training Teams (METT). In addition, participants from Afghanistan and Iraq as well as from Mediterranean Dialogue (MD), Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) and Contact countries took part in some of the activities.

The NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany, plays an important role as a facilitator between the Centres and NATO, promoting harmonization of calendars and curricula in support of NATO/PfP priorities. This includes “Train the Trainers” and “Instructor Exchange“ programmes and activities.