The conference went off in three sessions:
– Issues in the area of the professional military education and training coming from the Defense and Armed forces transformation process;
– Forms and methods of education and training contributing to the capabilities, necessary for fulfillment of the new spectrum of missions in the area of security and defense;
– Ways for overcoming problem areas of professional military education and training.
Issues of the present day addressing professional military education and training, following from transformation of Defense and Armed forces of NATO countries and from regulatory NATO documents were presented and discussed.
During the delivery of reports and the discussions following them, challenges facing the preparation for missions abroad of Bulgarian officers, experience in the area of professional military training of the Federal Armed Forces of Germany and the School of Logistics in Tour, France, were discussed.
The ideas shared by full professor Dr. Andreas Karcher from Federal Armed Forces University in Munich, Germany, were especially valuable. They addressed challenges facing officers – knowledge managers in a network-centric world.
Colonel Zaharin Markov from the General Staff of the Bulgarian Armed forces addressed the practical aspects of the military educational system transformation and their realization in the Bulgarian conditions as well as distance learning issues.
Using new information technologies and the modern equipment of the Department, a report delivery of a foreign “virtual” participant in the conference was demonstrated. A conference and video connection with Great Britain was realized by the Internet. Mr. David Jackson, representative of the forum of NATO “Border Security”, introduced the participants to the problems “Value and Specialization” in the training process. Within that demonstration a “distributed classroom” with representatives of the “N. Y. Vaptzarov” Naval Academy – Varna , was shown. From there the participants had the opportunity to ask Mr. Jackson questions and to get answers in real time, thus becoming full-value participants in the conference for 45 minutes.
The shared views and lessons learned from the experience of using modern distance learning forms were especially useful. They included specialized English language training as well as the application of Globe Smart Commander multimedia product for development of leader skills for team work.
Simulation training developed in the Department through JCATS for including the Peacekeeping Operations Center for preparation of officers planned for missions abroad in the learning process was demonstrated.
The discussion on the Modeling and Simulation Systems was one the foci outlining ways of overcoming problems of professional and military education and training.
The Conference finished with practical conclusions for increasingly complete perception and application of NATO documents and standards for the training process and for the implementations of contemporary information technologies in the preparation of the Bulgarian officers.
