02/10/2025

As part of the cooperation between our agency and NATO on the Defense Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP), a high-level delegation from the North Atlantic Alliance, led by Pavel Anastasov, head of the NATO DEEP programme from Brussels, visited our agency today where a review conference was held on the implementation of CTRC-related activities. These activities are aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of strategic-level education and training programmes based on NATO’s Reference Curriculum on Counter-Terrorism.

At the meeting held prior to the review conference, the Director of the Agency for Education and Professional Training, Marko Vujević, thanked the NATO Headquarters representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the cooperation achieved so far and expressed satisfaction with the development of the Agency’s partnership with NATO.

“Joint projects contribute to the development of the Agency for Education and Professional Training, which, through training and professional development, seeks to provide police officers in Bosnia and Herzegovina with state-of-the-art educational programmes, thereby strengthening the entire security system in BiH,” Vujević emphasized.

During the review conference, Elvir Velić, Assistant Director for Training, and Neven Kajić, senior advisor, gave presentations on the programme’s status. The implementation of the programme has been initiated by NATO Headquarters in BiH and relates to the development of curricula aligned with the CTRC and tailored to the needs of police agencies in BiH. It also includes the introduction of modern technological standards in our Agency’s teaching processes, such as digitized lectures, transitioning parts of the teaching into 3D virtual reality, and the integration of similar technologies within ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning).

So far, separate curricula for counter-terrorism training have been developed for police officers from the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), Border Police of BiH, and the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, based on the evaluation of the educational needs of those agencies. Following that, a pilot training phase was implemented for officers of SIPA and the Border Police, while the pilot training for the Directorate is scheduled to begin in early November this year.

At today’s review conference, it was agreed that after the pilot trainings are completed, necessary activities would begin to train trainers from police agencies. Only police officers who have completed the counter-terrorism training courses will be eligible to participate in the trainer training. These future trainers, under the mentorship of NATO instructors and in cooperation with lecturers from our agency, will conduct further training for staff from their respective agencies.

Regarding ADL (distance learning) activities, which are being carried out in parallel with CTRC, it is worth noting that the NATO ADL team conducted training in Poland, which was attended by two representatives from our agency. Additionally, in March of this year, the same team conducted online training for all lecturers and instructors of the Agency for Education and Professional Training (AEPTM). It was concluded that, in order to meet learning objectives, training should also be conducted in a contact phase at the agency's facilities early next year.

Furthermore, Pavel Anastasov, head of the NATO DEEP programme from Brussels, proposed today that topics such as integrity, leadership, cyber security, development of teaching staff, modern technologies, and artificial intelligence be introduced into the Agency’s professional programmes, following the same model used for CTRC. Director Vujević responded that this proposal would be presented to the police agencies and based on their expressed needs, the Agency for Education and Professional Training would begin the necessary procedures to develop curricula and plan future training.

The cooperation between AEPTM  and NATO takes place within the framework of NATO’s Defence Capacity Building package for Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically the NATO DEEP (Defence Education Enhancement Programme), which was expanded in 2023 to include the Agency for Education and Professional Training.