06.03.2013.
The ceremony closing the “NCO Training Centre” project
Expert workshop of representatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, the Serbian Armed Forces and representatives of the Nordic Initiative countries (Ministry of Defence of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Norway and the Government of the Kingdom of Sweden) was held today in the House of Guards in Topcider on the occasion of closing the “NCO Training Centre” project.Three North European countries provided assistance in financing the project to support career change, thanks to which a significant number of professional members of the Serbian Armed Forces completed the relevant training and gained new knowledge and skills necessary for further social reintegration.
As part of today's workshop the work of previous successful cooperation between these countries achieved during the “NCO Training Centre” projects was analysed, and the final evaluation of the project was presented.
Head of Department for the tradition, standard and veterans, Colonel Sladjan Ristic, noted that the functioning of modern military organisation requires fairly unbiased criteria for evaluation, ranking and selection of the best military personnel.- It also requires the existence of the defined predictable career model that will allow “the right people to be at the right time in the right place”. This predictability of military career is exactly the preliminary basis for the timely preparation for further social reintegration of professional members after the end of their professional military service, as is the case in modern armed forces of other countries, Colonel Ristic pointed out.
The implementation of the previous career change projects, with financial support of the Nordic Initiative countries, gives the opportunity to professional members of the defence system to complete the required training or retraining, and thereby gain new expertise and skills to facilitate work reintegration into the civilian sector. Providing the support so far made a significant contribution to the development and promotion of international military cooperation between the Ministry of Defence of Serbia and the ministries of defence of Nordic Initiative countries.In the period from 2007 to 2012, during the training cycles organized in the non-commissioned officer training centres in Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad, 1182 people were referred to the retraining, of which number over 50% got employed later. The “NCO Training Centre” is worth about a million and a half euros.
