SEE-GRID-SCI’s Training Model in South Eastern Europe

SEE-GRID-SCI and its predecessor projects have established a strong organized training scheme for grid users, developers and administrators, with a focus on further developing the solid grid community in the South Eastern European (SEE) region. SEE-GRIDSCI thus carries out multiple training events to raise the nationallevel and regional-level expertise and end-user adoption. The project has had a catalytic and structuring effect on a variety of regional user groups, providing advanced capabilities to more researchers with an emphasis on strategic applications such as seismology, environmental protection and meteorology. The model is focused on narrowing the technology skills gap as well as enabling e-science. The training model combines media-rich online curricula, classroom instruction, and hands-on labs. As part of this, SEE-GRID-SCI has established a central knowledge bank on grid technology, including ready-made training materials and educated trainers, designed to train different grid-user groups using a “train-the-trainer” concept. The project is consolidating the process of SEE regional e-Infrastructure and uses, leveraging the SEEREN and SEE-GRID infrastructures to reinforce scientific collaboration, and aiming to reach new as well as existing user communities.

Trainer community

All SEE-GRID-SCI project partners are heavily involved in training activities: in total almost 40 trainers are qualified to deliver training in the SEE region. Establishing this stable trainer community has been an important milestone in the life of the project, enabling easy access to trainers and specialized knowledge.

Training infrastructure

The training infrastructure was set up early in the project, and has proven to be a crucial tool for enabling flexible on-demand training. The training infrastructure offers a homogenous, reliable and grid-focused training environment with standardized access control. The training environment offers additional services, including an annotated training material repository, a training agenda system, and on-line surveys for training evaluation and to assure quality control. The material created at previous training events is also an important knowledge resource; it has therefore been made accessible and can be reused for future training events. These materials are also freely available to the wider public.

Training model

The classification of training events by type, and of materials by category, has eased customization of the training model. The training model provides tailored training support for the main SEE-GRID-SCI Virtual Organization (VO) communities. There is also a project-defined “grid evolution path” that helps DISTANCE LEARNING, EDUCATION AND TRAINING 5 guide potential grid clients as part of generic grid training courses (targeting end users, grid application developers and grid administrators). VO-specific training courses are also available, targeting VO-specific end users as well as application developers. In addition to these main targets, the project’s training strategy tries to reach out from traditional academic communities to serve and interest younger generations and the business world. The strategy thus supports knowledge transfer to graduate students and small or medium enterprises using user- and service-oriented training materials and infrastructure.

Conclusions

SEE-GRID-SCI’s training model aims to provide discipline-specific training opportunities for new SEEGRID- SCI communities using a self-sustaining training environment. The project has created a trainer community and defined a “grid evolution path”. It has also categorized training community targets and materials, established a training material repository, and provided support to trainers by creating information on how to use or reuse the training materials. The project is also producing multilingual training materials to facilitate knowledge transfer to a wider audience. The overall quality of the SEE-GRID-SCI training model is assured by strict training policies, by the standardization of training materials, and via constant monitoring of training events using reports and questionnaires.