17 September 2016 marked the end of the first ever refresher course in English for Ukrainian officers from the Odessa National Maritime Academy under NATO’s DEEP programme.
The curriculum included 120 classes in advanced English, preceded by an entrance test. The course finished with a graduation ceremony for the Ukrainian officers, who are take a NATO STANAG 6001 English language proficiency test from 19 to 21 September 2016. The course was taught by the teachers from the Postgraduate Training Department, Stanislava Ivanova and Kiril Hadzhiev, and the final test will be administered by authorised testers from Rakovski Defence and Staff College – Sofia.
The Ukrainian officers were given their course completion certificates by the Director of the Postgraduate Training Department, Commander Zhelyazko Nikolov, who made a brief analysis of the course, its curriculum, classes and tests.
The mission of NATO’s Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) is to contribute to international security through the professionalisation of the officer corps, NCOs and civil servants of the partner countries. As of September 2016, DEEP is in active cooperation with 13 countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Serbia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
