Issue Nr. 1 March 2006 - NATO School

NATO School
Commandant
SUBJECT: NATO School (NS) 2005 Fourth Quarter and End of Year Situation Report
3980.1.3/NS/CMDT/06/mp/hb
6 January 2006
1. Purpose: This report provides the Commandant’s assessment, a summary of the quarterly
statistics, activities, issues, and a projection for the upcoming quarter.
2. Commandant’s Assessment: This has been a record breaking year for the NATO School (NS)
in conducting academic programmes in support of the operational and transformational needs of the
Alliance. Our focus for this past year has been to manage the growth and demand in order to reach
attendance goals for our expanded facilities. The NS has now passed the 10,000 mark in attendance.
3. Quarterly Overview:
a. Statistics: 2004 2005
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
Resident NATO Students 1824 1561 1302 1375 6062 1943 1774 1421 1754 6892
Resident Non-NATO Students 365 221 179 256 1021 283 331 276 365 1255
Total Resident Students 2189 1782 1481 1631 7083 2226 2105 1697 2119 8147
METT Students 0 98 0 227 325 249 164 0 337 750
Total Students 2189 1880 1481 1585 7408 2475 2269 1697 2456 8897
Conference Attendees 834 543 188 102 1667 623 536 143 188 1490
Total 3023 2423 1669 1960 9075 3098 2805 1840 2644 10387
Cumulative 3023 5446 7115 9075 3098 5903 7743 10387
b. Academic Initiatives:
1) Transformational Content: The NS programme contributes broadly to the Strategic
Commands’ (SC) efforts in operationally-focused education and transformation. All 83 courses
include some form of an introduction to transformation. At a more advanced level, approximately 50
percent of our courses address the major concepts and capabilities in NATO’s framework for
transformation. Additionally, we have developed several initiatives that will increase our future
contribution: the creation of a Department of Standards, Enhancements and Transformation; the
distribution of transformation-related materials to all of our students as takeaways; the expansion of
our Advance Distributed Learning programme; the adoption of ACT transformation induction training
for NS faculty; the linkage of course objectives to the seven Transformational Objective Areas (TOAs);
and the on-going assessment and revision of our transformation-related course content to ensure
currency and relevancy.
2) Record Attendance: Overall attendance in 2005 has reached the record level of
10,387. While our new facilities may accommodate higher attendance, current NS personnel levels
limit further growth of attendance and courses. Therefore, in 2006 NS will focus on qualitative
improvements and enhancements to its programme, while continuing to seek an increase to its
manning, primarily through Voluntary National Contributions (VNCs).
3) Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL): ADL development at the NS has
significantly progressed in 2005, which focused on pre-learning packages, providing baseline
knowledge in preparation for resident courses. Twenty one ADL modules are currently on-line and
five modules are planned for development in 2006, while existing modules will be updated.
c. Board of Advisors (BOA): Key issues were discussed at the BOA in Oberammergau in
December:
NATO School
82487 Oberammergau – Germany - Internet: www.natoschool.nato.int
E-Mail: commandant@natoschool.nato.int - Tel.:+49 8822 9481 1000 Fax:+49 8822 93070