9 TRAINING AND EDUCATION
9.4. THE POSITIVE SIDE EFFECTS OF TRAINING – THE SECURITY POLICY DIMENSION
Prologue: The European Security and Defence College is a ‘network college’ which is comprised of 120 national entities including diplomatic academies, national defence universities, police colleges and NGOs. The article below is based on that specific training environment, in which the training audience is mainly recruited from the EU institutions and national administrations, i.e. from various ministries and agencies. The training environment is international and includes both military and civilian participants, with a focus on ensuring gender and regional balance among trainees. In general, the ESDC provides training and education for the Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) in the wider context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) at European level.
INTRODUCTION
by Jochen Rehrl
THE POSITIVE SIDE EFFECTS OF TRAINING The positive side effects of training, from the trainer’s and trainee’s perspective, include a) Institution building b) Human capacity building c) Democratisation d) Intellectual diversity e) Regional focus f ) Agenda setting g) Confidence building h) Networking This list does not claim to be exhaustive, but it gives a good overview of the potential of each training activity. It is up to the training designer to reflect on that potential and to the course director to ensure that it is fulfilled.
Graph: Jochen Rehrl
The general assumption is that the word ‘training’ refers to acquiring and applying the knowledge, skills and competencies which are needed for a specific job. In addition to the classic goals of training, however, there are some other relevant dimensions which play a crucial role, in particular when it comes to training at strategic level. These positive side effects can be described as the ‘security policy dimension’ of training. These side effects include institution and human capacity building, strengthening participants’ intellectual diversity and confidence building – to name but a few. It is of the utmost importance that the training designer be aware of these positive side effects, in order to make the best use of them.
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