On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to WMO on behalf of the China Meteorological Administration Training Center (CMATC), which is also one of the WMO Regional Training Centres (RTC), and in my own name. We trust that the Organization will lead its global meteorological partners to further achievements in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the future, thus making new and greater contributions to the betterment of human well-being.
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| Messages from participants of the international trainings held at RTC Beijing |
The China Meteorological Administration Training Center is a national provider of high-level continuing education and on-the-job training for the Chinese meteorological community: it is entrusted with the continuing education of middle and senior management and middle and senior professional and technical staff of the Chinese National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (NMHS). It provides training in application of new technology to meteorology and in meteorology-related fields. Moreover, it provides further training for existing trainers, which is offered both in-situ and remotely. The China Meteorological Administration Training Center also offers guidance to sub-centres across the country, and prepares and produces training materials. At the same time, it provides international training in meteorological operation and management for staff from developing countries around the world. In 2002, it was recognized by WMO as a Regional Training Center (RTC-Beijing) and as a WMO/Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) virtual laboratory of excellence in 2007.
Since being recognized as an RTC by WMO, it has held more than 60 international training workshops, with more than 1 300 international participants from 135 countries and regions, covering six WMO Regions. Most of the participants come from developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, of whom 58% are from Asia and 33% from Africa.
1. Focus on WMO Strategic Plan and ongoing meteorological activities
In so far as the demand for training and course planning is concerned, CMATC focuses on the seven priority areas identified in the WMO Strategic Plan 2016–2019, the WMO competency frameworks and education and training policies. By taking full advantage of the resources available from CMA, it maintains close contact with CMA facilities. The training centre closely follows developments in meteorology and designs fit-for-purpose training courses resulting in targeted training programmes in such fields as meteorological observation, weather forecasting, climate prediction, satellite meteorology, aeronautical meteorology, disaster risk reduction and response to climate change.
2. Strengthening partnerships for a stronger teaching team
Taking full advantage of its geographical location, which ensures easy access to domestic and foreign experts, the training centre’s teaching staff has senior experts and scholars from the National Meteorological Center (NMC), the National Climate Center (NCC), the National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC), the Aeronautical Meteorological Center of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and others, to keep trainees informed of the latest developments in areas such as operational technology, practical applications and strategic policy, and to provide them with selected examples . Experts from other countries or international organizations, including WMO, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, are invited to give lectures at training workshops to broaden trainees’ perspective. In recent years, international lecturers have accounted for about 20% of the total.
3. Optimizing training methods and diversifying teaching modes
With nearly 20 years’ experience in distance education, CMATC operates a robust meteorological distance education system with Chinese characteristics. The RTC-Beijing has gone beyond the traditional teaching mode by introducing online teaching into the classroom, thus diversifying the teaching method, which now features a traditional plus a remote approach. Thanks to the latter, international experts are now readily accessible, as exemplified by the presentations delivered online by Dr Zhang Wenjian, Assistant Secretary-General of WMO. At the same time, CMATC pays attention to practical, hands-on training, experiential teaching, panel discussion, trainee forums and other methods that are popular with international participants, so that the training is a mutually reinforcing and fulfilling process for both trainers and trainees.
4. Continuous strengthening of training quality management
The China Meteorological Administration Training Center carries out all its activities in accordance with its training management system, which consists of four stages: demand analysis, project planning, organization, implementation, and review and evaluation. At the planning stage, it focuses on training demand analysis and research, and designs evaluation indicators applicable to international training. In training implementation, it observes the established standard processes and practices to ensure enthusiastic and thoughtful services for trainees together with careful follow-up evaluation and feedback. A review and evaluation report is written immediately after a training event to continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of training. As a result, the international training workshops on various topics that have been held at the centre have been widely and highly spoken of by sponsors like WMO and by international participants.
