CCOE officially appointed as NATO Department Head for CIMIC and CMI – “Giving Excellence a face.”
In October 2015, the CCOE was officially granted the status of Department Head (DH) for the Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) and Civil-Military Interaction (CMI) discipline within NATO. The DH supports Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation’s (HQ SACT’s) responsibility for translating NATO Education & Training requirements into solutions for the individual and collective training spectrum. Furthermore, the DH will assemble a discipline Education & Training program. Acting as DH means that the CCOE has sufficient expertise in the CIMIC and CMI discipline to manage training solutions and take part in the quality assurance processes.
Within NATO, Training and Education is clearly structured. It follows the Military Committee Policy – MC 0458/3. The policy defines that there are two authorized bodies responsible for a discipline: the Requirements Authority (RA) and the Department Head (DH). The RA is responsible for identifying and managing the special NATO Education and Training requirements concerning the discipline. The DH is responsible to matching the requirements with NATO solutions and for the coordination of those solutions. For the discipline NATO CIMIC and CMI the RA is the Assistant Chief of Staff (ACOS) J9 of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). CCOE is acting as the DH.
The CCOE has been serving as the essential forum for CIMIC and CMI issues, conducting courses and training, and providing subject matter expertise since July 2006 as a NATO accredited Centre of Excellence. CCOE is the 7th Centre of Excellence which was appointed as the DH for a discipline within NATO. Learn more about the CCOE in that Introduction Video.
The upcoming challenge for the CCOE as a DH is to conduct a Training Needs Analysis. AS the DH CCOE will recommend to ACT improved solutions where required. Thereby it will take into account CCOE’s Vision 2020 – where we will assume a leading role in collective knowledge sharing – and the Wales Summit, which gives us Direction and Guidance towards better individual and collective mission preparedness.
“We are proud to have been granted the status of Department Head and will continue to expand our knowledge and expertise in the field of CIMIC and CMI. Being Department Head is giving excellence a face.” Said Colonel Roel Been, Director of the CCOE.
Picture: TRA Conference/ Source: CCOE/ Kaminski
Having the DH role implicates that a single person at the CCOE acting as the responsible Point of Contact. Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Keijzer, the branch chief for Training & Education at CCOE, is assigned to fulfil this responsible position. He already took the lead during the Training Requirement Analysis Workshop from 29 September to 01 October 2015 at the CCOE which is one of the activities to be performed by the DH of a discipline. Read more about this Workshop here.
Picture: TRA Conference/ Source: CCOE/ Kaminski
This article is written by CCOE/ Training & Education/ Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Keijzer (RNLMC) & PAO/ Major Peter Kaminski (DEU A).