Article
IFMS approach to training
Harinder Ahluwalia International Forum of Meteorological Societies ( IFMS )
BAMOS July 2021
21
The objective of the International Forum of Meteorological Societies ( IFMS ) is to facilitate the activities of its member national meteorological societies ( NMSocs ) and minimise the duplication of efforts by sharing resources through joint activities in various areas such as Education and Training ( E & T ), Science and Technology ( S & T ) Collaboration , Best Practices , Certification and Accreditation and keeping members informed about activities in the Global Weather Enterprise , etc .
Let ’ s see what an ideal NMSoc needs to be doing in the area of E & T to build capacity in their country :
1 . Develop a list of courses it believes are needed by professionals in its country to build capacity
2 . Identify what is available in the market both paid and unpaid
3 . Do a gap analysis to determine what is available in ( 2 ) that can meet the requirements of ( 1 )
4 . Decide what is to be done about gaps . Most societies do not have available resources to develop any courses or pay for getting these courses developed .
Let ’ s now talk about IFMS which is a union of all NMSocs of the world . The idea is to share resources so that even the least developed societies can take advantage of the work of other member societies or the work is distributed between NMSocs and coordinated by IFMS . This mechanism gives real meaning to IFMS . IFMS can do all the above with the help of its member NMSocs and all NMSocs can take advantage of this work . Each Society does not need to reinvent the wheel .
We want to have a central repository of all available training whether free or paid . Since we have members from all manner of nations — rich and not so rich — it is up to users to decide whether they want to pay and take training courses or use only the ones with no cost .
In addition , we request Societies such as the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Royal Meteorological Society ( RMetS ) decide whether they wish to assist developing countries by giving them free access or access at a muchreduced rate in order to build capacity in all nations .
What we ( IFMS ) are trying to do right now is :
1 . Identify what Training Courses are available whether free or at some cost
2 . Identify what courses we need to strengthen capacity building in weaker countries
3 . Do a gap analysis
4 . Decide what should be done about gaps . If any Society is prepared to develop some courses , assist them in doing so . For example ; the Indian Meteorological Society ( IMS ) is planning to develop Teacher Training Courses and Student Training Courses , which they are prepared to share with others . IFMS should assist them by requesting other societies to collaborate with them .
In order to make people aware of what is available from AMS and RMetS , we have invited them to make a presentation . In our last Council Meeting on 16 June 2021 , we decided one panel discussion can cover presentations from both societies . Both are very matured societies ; their presentations should be meaningful . A Q & A following on from this should clarify many issues .
Prior to the panel discussion , IFMS will send a brief to panelists describing what IFMS is planning to do in the field of E & T . The panelists should validate or provide different ideas throughout the webinar on what they believe is required and what they would like IFMS to do about it . A Q & A post-panel discussion will help further clarify these ideas . We need to ensure that the panelists are experts in E & T .
Other NMSocs will be invited to make presentations on their E & T Programs . If a sufficient number of them show interest , we will give them an opportunity to make presentations in our future webinars .
We are also conducting a survey of all NMSocs in the world to determine their status in certain areas . We can then make plans to fine tune IFMS activities to make them as useful as possible , following the survey outcomes .
( AMOS is a member of IFMS — Ed .)