In 1965, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) established a panel of experts on education and training chaired by distinguished meteorological researchers and educators. The mandate of this panel is to prepare a comprehensive guide containing syllabi for both basic and specialized fields of meteorological training. Starting 1969, the panel has released a series of vitally important training publications to assist the teaching staff of WMO Regional Training Centres (RTCs) while respecting the prerogative of individual countries to set their own detailed standards and syllabi

The panel recognised that the impacts of economic globalization on the operation of NMSs, coupled with the greatly increased focus on natural disaster reduction requires an interdisciplinary approach, especially on the overall goals of sustainability. This approach calls for a diversified personnel with greater flexibility for development across the diverse areas of responsibility of NMSs in the 21st century. Training has consequently had to diversify expertise through the development of new programmes and the revision of existing training programmes.

The panel also foresaw the need for more focused professional training and user oriented NMS's. In this respect, the panel proposed a new classification (nomenclature) system of meteorological and hydrological personnel and issued new guidelines for the training of these personnel. This involved transition to a simplified two-tier classification system composed of Meteorologists/Hydrologists and Technicians. The Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (IMTR) recognizes the important advances in meteorology, as an applied physical science, resulting from an improved understanding of the coupled atmosphere-ocean-land system, improved prediction techniques and the dynamics of information and communication technology (ICT).

IMTR like other RTCs, has embarked on a process to review training curricula for various courses in line with the WMO guidelines and taking into account global and national goals. Consequently, IMTR has already reviewed and adapted the two-tier system of training for meteorological personnel. IMTR has held several Curriculum Development/Review retreats, out of which several curricula have been either developed or reviewed. Five of these have already been published, amongst them:

• Advanced Meteorological Technicians Course (AMTC)
• Middle level Meteorological Technicians Course (MMTC)
• Disaster Management Course (DMC)
• Certificate in Advanced Integrated Water Resources Management Course (IWRM)
• Diploma in Computer Studies (DCS)

The first two programmes respectively replaced the old WMO Class IV/III and WMO class II courses. Seven programmes are undergoing a peer-review process and will be published immediately this process is completed. These are:

• Environmental Management and Assessment (MEM)
• Course in Applied Climatology (CAC)
• Table Driven Code Formats (TDCF)
• Artillery Meteorology Course’ (AMC)
• Course in Applied Agricultural Meteorology (CAAM)
• Specialised Course in Aviation Meteorology (SCAM)
• Climate Change and Sustainable Development (CCSD).