Surviving Hostile Environments: HEAT 2024 Successfully Concluded
HEAT 2024 – in the first week of June, the Peace Operations Training Centre (POTC), operating within the Centre for European Perspective, held the Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT). The intense training took place at the Gotenica Police Training Centre.
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The Hostile Environment Awareness Trainings (HEAT) are well-established trainings organised worldwide by different non-profit and for-profit organisations. For more than 10 years CEP, and now POTC, in close cooperation with Slovenian Police and Slovenian Armed Forces, has been a consistent provider of HEAT in Slovenia.
The general aim of HEAT is to train individuals to deal effectively with risk-associated and emergency/critical situations while deployed in hostile environments abroad. The latest training was attended by 17 participants: 12 from Slovenia (participants were mostly referred by the three partner institutions: Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and Ministry of Interior of Slovenia) and 5 participants from abroad (Ivory Coast, France, Romania). Participants either already work in hostile environments or plan to apply for positions that require a certificate of HEAT attendance, such as positions in peacekeeping missions and operations.
The training was a mix of interactive lectures that covered a wide range of topics, among others: how to provide for your own personal security, how to plan movements and what to do at (il)legal checkpoints, radio communication and orientation, movement during mass gatherings, surviving kidnap situations, stress management, improvised explosive devices, and basic life support. The training culminated in a day-long simulation exercise during which the participants were faced with many stressful situations that required appropriate responses.
The participants all successfully completed the course, expressing their satisfaction with the new knowledge, techniques, and experience that will, if needed, benefit their current or future work postings.
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