Five years ago, the NCI Academy welcomed its first students and has since evolved and changed to continue to welcome many more as required by the evolving needs of the Alliance.
Today, the NCI Academy offer an evolving catalogue of more than 240 courses to over 8000 students per year from across NATO Allied and Partner Nations covering the entire spectrum of NATO-specific cyberspace education and training. With 740 iterations planned for 2024 alone covering communication and deployable systems, command and control and, functional services, and cyber, the NCI Academy tangibly enables NATO to keep its technological edge.
To celebrate its fifth anniversary, the Academy hosted a celebratory ceremony on 25 September 2024. Over 200 distinguished guests, including NATO military and civilian leaders, Portuguese Officials, other NATO education and training facilities as well as many NCI Academy staff attended the event.
In his opening speech, NCIA General Manager Ludwig Decamps stated "In these five years, the Academy has played a critical role in shaping the future of NATO's communications and information capabilities. It has helped to develop the skills and expertise of our workforce, ensuring that we have the right people with the right skills to operate our advanced technology. The Academy has also been instrumental in promoting the dimension of 'human interoperability' among NATO's member nations, helping to ensure that we can work together effectively in the face of evolving threats".
NCI Academy Director Garry Hargreaves echoed these sentiments, celebrating the Academy a "beacon of knowledge" that continues to guide NATO through times of transformation and challenge. He continued by thanking NCIA's executive leadership team and our NATO partners for their continuous trust and cooperation.
The opening remarks were followed by keynote addresses Dr Jamie Shea, Friends of Europe Senior Fellow and former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, Brigadier General Konstantinos Mathios, ACT Assistant Chief of Staff Multi Domain Force Development, and Brigadier General Jarkko Karsikas, Deputy Commander NCISG.
In an afternoon programme, guests had the opportunity to visit the flagship facility in Oeiras, Portugal with classrooms equipped with relevant NATO system and engage in thematic sessions on training by design, adapting learning and training requirements in a multi-domain operations environment.