to execute the program should make the final interviewing and
hiring decisions as they are the most qualified to do so. Experienced trainers will not just have an impressive resume, but will
also be dynamic instructors, up to date in international best
practices, and easily adaptable to changes in the operational and
training environments.
Step 3: Research
support and the Regional Security Officer (RSO) to understand
the country’s current threat level. Additionally, the assessor
should scout the venue and accommodations and meet with the
interpretation team to ensure they possess the requisite linguistic capabilities and understand any special terminology for the
course.
The assessor should meet with the country’s government representatives to confirm political support from the target country,
One of the most overlooked steps in developing any program is as well as beginning to form an initial relationship with the
open source research. Open source research should include, but supported government ministry or department that will provide
not be limited to:
strategic oversight and monitoring of the training program,
while ensuring their training expectations are understood
• Current border management initiatives/strategies
and covered in the strategy. The assessor should use the time
• International organizations providing border management
in-country to better understand the operational environment
support
of their borders through a short workshop with governmental
• Current border threat assessment
officials responsible for border threats, or by physically visiting
• Other existing mitigating strategies that are relevant to border the borders and talking with the border security officers.
security (counter terrorism, organized crime and migration)
Lastly, the assessor should work with the country’s government
Step 4: Pre-Training Visit
to identify potential participants that would need to be added to the vetting process for the course. Currently, the vetting
While the organization selected to execute the program is
process for participants is less than optimal. Under the current
finalizing deliverables from the kickoff donor meeting and
scheme, the target country is provided minimum qualification
doing open source research on the target country, an assessor
requirements to select candidates for the program. Once the
(a donor country representative, contracted company, or newly candidates are selected by the country, they usually are required
hired trainer(s)) should execute a pre-training visit. Nominally, to undergo a vetting process by the donor country which is
this visit is necessary to establish the logistics for the program.
ultimately a background check. Although this process is benThe assessor should meet with the U.S. embassy for logistic
eficial to “clear” an individual’s background, it is not sufficient
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