Partnership Training and Education Centres (PTECs)

Tools and activities

As new emerging challenges worldwide require a coordinated response, NATO sees education and training as one of the best tools to help enhance stability and resilience. By supporting knowledge exchange, interoperability, regional confidence-building, lessons-learned and best practices, PTECs are at the core of the Alliance's cooperative effort to increase the cohesion and readiness of its members and partners.

Sponsored on a national or multi-national basis, PTECs offer a broad spectrum of activities. These range from courses for military and civilian audiences, to seminars and workshops, to platforms of a more operational nature such as field training or providing venues for exercises. Some PTECs also offer Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and Mobile Education Training Teams (METT). These can train personnel from NATO and partner countries in various crucial areas, including the civilian control of the armed forces. All of PTECs activities are open to Allies and partner countries based on the principles of transparency and non-discrimination.

PTECs have proven indispensable for the implementation of NATO’s key partnership programmes, most notably for the Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP), Building Integrity (BI), Defence Capacity Building (DCB) or the Operational Capability Concept (OCC).

Moreover, PTECs play an active part in NATO’s Partnership Cooperation Menu (PCM), an annual catalogue comprised of education, training and other events for Allies and partners across 37 areas of cooperation. PTECs contribute to the PCM on topics like defence reform, protection of civilians in armed conflicts, crisis management, cyber defence, leadership, language training or cultural awareness.

PTECs have also provided pre-deployment training to troops for NATO operations and missions such as the Kosovo Force (KFOR) and Sea Guardian. Moreover, they offered their expertise for missions of other international organisations such as the UN or the AU, including the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

Framework

Who is who?

Allied Command Transformation (ACT) 
ACT bears the overall responsibility for the management of PTECs. By providing guidance and support, it ensures that the quality of education and training offered corresponds to NATO’s standards. ACT collaborates with other bodies on the formal recognition of PTECs and, based on specific criteria, accredits individual Centres and some of their courses.

NATO School Oberammergau (NSO) 
The NSO supports and assists with further development mechanisms for cooperation, coordination, information exchange and sharing of lessons learned among all PTECs. Its activities include the co-chairing of the PTEC Commandants Conference and focused Working Groups, which annually align PTECs’ objectives with the changing security landscape and NATO’s current requirements. The School also cooperates with several PTECs on the delivery of specialised education and training, including “Train the Trainer” and “Instructor Exchange” Programmes. While the former offers training of interested participants at NSO, the latter brings experts from one PTEC to another for briefings, lectures and other capacity-building activities.

NATO Headquarters (NATO HQ)
Within NATO HQ, the International Staff’s Operations Division, in cooperation with the International Military Staff’s Cooperative Security Division, acts as a focal point for the PTEC community and ensures that PTECs are informed about NATO’s agenda and partnership priorities. The Division is also in charge of the PTECs Marketplace – an annual event that enables PTECs to present their activities and achievements, and introduce themselves to the wider NATO community. The Operations Division also leads on the recognition process of interested Centres in close cooperation with ACT and NSO.

PTECs approval process

To be formally recognised as a PTEC, a centre’s education and training activities need to fall within the scope of NATO partnership policy and support its objectives. A host country of the candidate centre then needs to submit an application, supported by Military Committee advice when necessary. The final decision is taken by the North Atlantic Council (NAC), NATO’s principal political decision-making body.

Evolution of PTECs

PTECs were originally launched in 1999 under the Partnership for Peace (PfP) initiative to develop education and training activities with Euro-Atlantic partners. In 2008, the network was broadened to include the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) partnership frameworks. Since 2012, the network and its activities have been open to all partner countries.

At their Berlin meeting in April 2011, NATO Foreign Ministers adopted the “Policy for a More Efficient and Flexible Partnership”. This policy reaffirmed the commitment to offer all partners “deeper political and practical engagement with the Alliance, including through support for defence education, training and capacity building, within existing resources”. It also stated NATO’s intention to provide increased support to the development and improvement of education and training capabilities in partner countries. In 2012, the NAC endorsed the Concept for Partnership Training and Education Centres, which created the PTECs network and defined their objectives.

The role of PTECs has been enhanced by NATO’s Education, Training, Exercises, and Evaluation (ETEE) Policy. Under ETEE, PTECs are supporting NATO Education and Individual Training activities by providing expertise in the subject matters of their focus, such as gender inclusion in military operations, peace support operations, and protection of civilian in armed conflicts.

At present, the PTEC network comprises 34 centres, with 19 centres located in 14 NATO countries and 15 centres in 13 partner countries.