Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
08.03.2013.

Textbooks and teaching materials for the Serbian Armed Forces



Donation of the United States, consisting of teaching literature and material for English language courses, was presented today at the Self-Access Centre (SAC) in the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces.

The ceremony was held under the support of PELT donor countries (Kingdom of Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, the UK and the USA) and the IMET programme (Programme for International military cooperation between Serbia and the United States in the field of education and training in 2013).

Donation consisted of tons of books and teaching materials, multimedia kits for English language learning courses, from the United States Defence Language Institute.

The activities were attended by the Head of the Personnel Department, Human Resources Sector, Ministry of Defence, Brigadier General Dragosav Lackovic, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark to Serbia Mette Kewell Nielsen, Chief of PELT Directorate Lieutenant Colonel Zikica Milinkovic, defence attaches of donor countries, representatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, the Serbian Armed Forces, then the US Office of Defense Cooperation and the representatives of the British Council in Belgrade.

General Lackovic pointed out that the knowledge and ability to use the English language have become necessary for the active participation of Serbia in the Partnership for Peace Programme and peace support operations through the UN and EU missions.

- In this context, communication skills in English of the professional staff of the Serbian Armed Forces represent one of the priorities of the Ministry of Defence and the very important goal of our military. Enhancing the skills of professional personnel in the field of English language, through schooling and later through training, is critical to our interoperability with international forces, mainly in order to participate in multinational peace support operations, and then through the realization of the Partnership Goals within the Partnership for Peace Programme, the General emphasized.

PELT program is a part of organized efforts to implement the plan in order to meet the demands for language interoperability of the personnel of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, as one of the conditions for engaging in a multinational environment, which is realised in the framework of the PfP mechanisms and Planning and Review Process.

Equipping of centres in the Serbian Armed Forces garrisons with teaching materials is the continuation of planned outreach activities in the framework of the Programme for training and testing of the members of the defence system in the field of English language according to STANAG 6001.