Postgraduate Education and Training

We offer postgraduate training courses directed to:

 
  • Professionals from different disciplines active in the management of natural resources
  • Decision makers and stakeholders from regional or national authorities
  • Executive, technical and administrative staff
  • Experts working in the field of development cooperation

Background

Global population, economic growth and on-going environmental deterioration are increasing the pressure on existing natural systems. Their ability to provide natural resources such as food, water and energy is at risk. Continuing education in line with lifelong learning plays a key role in enabling professionals and decision makers to effectively address the increasing pressure on natural systems in policies and development strategies.

Objective

In our training courses we aim to enable people of various technical and cultural backgrounds to better solve the complex issues related to environmental problems with an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach. Through manifold trainings and modern methods of teaching and learning, we realize the concept of lifelong learning and offer different training formats of one or several weeks. Courses take place at the TH Köln in Cologne, Germany or at affiliated institutes abroad and are offered in modules which can be compiled as required.

Frequently offered courses focus on the following topic areas:

  • Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)
  • Monitoring, Modelling and Data Management
  • Drought management
  • Land use analysis and land use planning
  • Tools for resources management: Arc/QGIS, remote sensing
  • Water Energy-Food-Security Nexus
  • Economic, social and institutional issues of natural resources management

Didactic methods

In the training courses we implement case study based learning with practice oriented and interactive teaching methods including enquiry-based learning, group work and role playing games. Our trainers are university lecturers and researchers as well as experts coming from private industry, public administration and from ongoing development assistance projects such as UNESCO IHP, GIZ or FAO. Classroom lectures are complemented by field visits and excursion to the case study regions or relevant institutions and companies.

Examples of postgraduate training courses conducted in the past:

Training course on „The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Approach; and on “German and European Nexus Case Studies“, Santiago de Chile, Mai 2018; Beirut, Lebanon, December 2017; Niamey / Niger, October 2017 Symposium and professional postgraduate training course on: “Understanding the role of central Andean climate and hydrology for water management: tools and concepts”, November 2015, Santiago de Chile, Chile, offered in cooperation with the UNESCO IHP, LINK Training course on Monitoring, Information and Modelling for River Basin Management, October 2014 Da Nang, Vietnam, http://www.basin-info.net/education/training-courses/postgraduate-training-course Short term courses for professionals of the Mekong River Commission, InWEnt, 2005-2007 Implementation of the InWEnt funded postgraduate three years training on “Transboundary Watershed Management in the Lower Mekong Region”, 2005-2008 Technical coordination of the Workshop “Training Needs Assessment of the Water Sector in the Andes Region”, Cuzco, Peru, organized by InWEnt, 2.-8.05.2005. Workshop “Integrated natural resources management”, university cooperation with the Southern Africa Development Community region, 29.08.-02.09.2005 The aim of the workshop was bringing together an interdisciplinary group of specialists dealing with different aspects of resource management and coming from different African countries. The Limpopo and the Zambezi River basin, which are both transboundary catchments as well as Lake Malawi served as case studies.