Solutions

Developing World Class Water Leaders

water education programsOrganisations from around the globe are turning to Australia to train their managers in one of the best water education programs available in the world.

According to Richard Hopkins, Chief Executive of ICE WaRM, the International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management based in Adelaide, Australia’s willingness to share information openly combined with its unrivalled water expertise, makes it the ideal place for learning.

“Australia has traditionally been seen as a leader in water expertise because we have overcome a lot of challenges, now including climate change impacts, and we have done it very transparently,” Richard says. “We are comfortable with sharing our successes and failures for the benefit of other people’s learning.”

ICE WaRM was established in 2004 under a Commonwealth grant to draw international scholars to Australia and act as a channel to world-class education, training and research in water management, delivered by a consortium of Australian institutions.

It has been so successful that it is no longer reliant on seed funding and is now a self sustaining organisation. One of its keys to success has been its focus on professional development programs for international water managers and students. “It is very important to us that participants in our programmes return to their home countries with not only water resources management skills, but the ability to share their knowledge locally,” Richard says.

“In a six week professional development program, 25 per cent of the participants’ time is spent reflecting on how they can apply the skills they’ve learnt to their own environment and how they can share their knowledge locally.

“It is a unique approach and has been very well accepted.”

Richard says the role of ICE WaRM has expanded in the last five years from simply being an education broker, to being much more involved with creating sustainable water industries in Australia and overseas.

“We are now a lot more involved in the national water agenda including providing advice to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on water skills in Australia and supplementing our courses for particular Australian skills needs.

“We are still servicing the international market in education and training but in addition to this we are now more focused on international partnerships.”

One of ICE WaRM’s export successes has been the capacity development it has facilitated for the Mekong River Commission’s National Mekong Committees, government agencies and national universities through short courses, study tours and workshops. The first such program involved 45 delegates from four countries in the Mekong Sub-Region - Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand who studied Australian water resources management techniques, policy and governance, particularly trans-boundary issues.

The first programme was a great success and has led to similar initiatives in 2009 and 2010 with more planned in the future. “We are hoping to make these programmes regular events,” Richard says.

Another example of tangible success can be seen in ICE WaRM’s industry placement program where international students spend a short or long term placement in an Australian water business.

“This is an area where we strongly encourage more Australian water businesses to get involved.”

If your business would like to know more about the education and training opportunities available to water professionals in Australia visit www.icewarm.com.au.

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