Practical training puts newly learned skills to the test

During the second week of the UN Military Experts on Mission (UNMEM) course, the focus is on practical training. The basic knowledge of peacekeeping operations and theoretical information concerning the duties of observers gained last week are now put into practice.

The aim of the practical training is to give the students an overall impression of a modern, integrated United Nations peacekeeping operation, and what it is like to work in such an environment. They experience real world situations and cases, which are chosen from actual peacekeeping operations.

Patrolling in the scenario’s demilitarized zone between the parties of the simulated conflict, the students focus on performing tasks as observers. They deepen their skills in patrolling, negotiation and mediation, reporting, cultural awareness and emergency first aid.

Learning new skills

Negotiating and mediating are vital skills when operating as a military observer in a crisis area. The practical exercises have been created to evaluate how participants succeed in implementing the skills learned during the first week of the course. The most realistic situations are created with negotiations and meetings with different actors in various locations.

Many students feel that learning mediation and negotiation skills is very useful but challenging. Also the media training stood out as a new and useful tool for most students. The importance of team work and thorough preparation for ones duties became clear to all during the on the job training phase.

Feedback sessions speed up the learning

Creating a supportive learning environment is possible only with the positive atmosphere and motivation of the instructors, role-players and conscripts, who all contribute to creating a learning environment that benefits the students’ learning process.

Each exercise and incident is followed by a feedback session, where the teams evaluate their own performance, the students reflect on their own actions, and the instructor sums up the feedback. The students were extremely happy with this method.

Course Director Juha Viljanen explains that behind the scenes around 50 people join the training to enable the unique learning experience in Santahamina. Viljanen continues that big thanks are due to all these people for their excellent work.