Ministero della Difesa

The Spring Meeting 2016 of the NATO Training Group Task Group Individual Training & Education Developments (NTGTG IT&ED) ended on 17^th March in Rome. Italy was the host nation of the event in which 43 representatives of 25 NATO member Countries discussed about issues in education and training policy and new technologies applied to education and training. This one was the 87^th edition.

During this meeting, the activities have been divided into two main topics: one concerning education policies and the second one based on advanced distance learning issues, in order to offer specific training activities to a large number of students at a very low cost.

The meeting started with a welcome speech of Colonel Marco Buscemi, Chief of the Education Branch of the Italian Joint General Staff, on behalf of Major General Umberto Baldi, Director of the Personnel Directorate of the Italian Defense. Col. Buscemi underlined the importance to take part to the meeting whose “objective is to serve as a basic reference for the definition of national training and education directives”.

Furthemore, the Task Group visited the NATO Modelling&Simulation Centre of Excellence (NATO M&S COE), accredited as a NATO COE in 2012. The Director of M&S COE, Captain italian Navy Vincenzo Milano, welcomed the delegates and presented the NATO M&S CAC Systems and new simulation technology being developed there.

The Centre offers high and qualified professionality and skills in the field of modelling and simulation to the benefit of the NATO partner nations and it was built to support training and interoperability in order to satisfy operational requirements.

The NATO Training Group (NTG) was formed to share best education and training practices and to address common training issues between nations and NATO’s structures, as the established aim is "to enhance professionalism, interoperability and standardization among Alliance and partner forces through improved co-ordination of Education, Training, Exercise and Evaluation, with particular emphasis on supporting operations" (MC 238/5).

Following the Prague Summit of 2002, the NTG was subordinated to the Allied Command Transformation (ACT).
Among the seven NTG Task Groups (NTGTGs), there is the Task Group on “Individual Training & Education Developments” (IT&ED).  The Task Group IT&ED meets twice yearly (Spring and Autumn) in a host Country. Italy already hosted a meeting in 2005 (Autumn Meeting).