Education and training

ATRAC’s key role is providing education in the field of oil and HNS spills to the persons from the whole Adriatic region who are involved in national and local/regional preparedness and response system.

Through education, ATRAC’s main goals are:

• Strengthening the capacities of Adriatic coastal countries/regions and enabling cooperation regarding preparedness and response to incidents causing marine pollution or requiring emergency intervention.
• Assisting Adriatic coastal areas/regions and countries in developing their response capabilities and enabling information exchange and technical cooperation between them.
• Helping establishing local/regional preparedness and response systems and promoting dialogue and information exchange on operational, technical, scientific, legal and financial issues directed to conducting coordinated actions on a local, regional or national level.
• Encouraging national and local/regional institutions and relevant industries to work on the subject of oil spills, to investigate environmental impacts, and to assess the materials and techniques used in interventions, all of which are of particular importance for the Adriatic region.

ATRAC’s educational programme covers oil and HNS spills and is based on a well-accepted international IMO OPRC training course models and educational package established within the POSOW project, funded by European Commission.

IMO OPRC

Based on the international convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC 1990.), International Maritime Organization (IMO), in arrangement with other relevant international and regional organizations, has developed an educational programme in the field of oil spill preparedness and response, including all available expertise for developing and implementing these programmes. IMO decided to develop the next three training course models:

• First responder (Level 1),
• Supervisor/On-scene commander (Level 2), and
• Senior management personnel (Level 3).

POSOW

POSOW project was funded by European Union, and its main goal was to improve all aspects of shoreline response, and to strengthen regional cooperation, knowledge dissemination and operational capacity of staff (experts and volunteers) involved in oil spill response. POSOW training courses are developed for personnel responding on shore, who have very little or no knowledge on coastal morphology and characteristics, oil properties and behaviour or polluted shoreline characterization. Find out more about POSOW project here.

Upon establishment, ATRAC is taking into account the needs and requirements of Adriatic countries and developing all-inclusive educational programme to cover both oil and HNS pollution.

ATRAC tends to organize training courses on local/regional, as well as national level for all Adriatic coastal countries. General type of training courses is upgraded with subjects, methods and techniques specific for the Adriatic region. Course programmes are adjusted to the needs of each group of attendants, whether on local, regional or national level.