China Launches Innovative Meteorological Training Reform Plan

Education and training are regarded as essential, foundational, and strategic elements within China's meteorological sector, in alignment with the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) capacity development priorities. As the global meteorological landscape undergoes significant shifts, both positive and negative, for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), it becomes increasingly important to have a skilled and well-trained workforce to navigate these changes effectively. To meet this demand, China has launched an ambitious six-year reform plan for its meteorological training system, spanning from 2024 to 2030. At the core of this initiative is the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) Training Centre (CMATC) in Beijing, which will serve as the leading institution. Supporting this central hub are two regional centres, located in Hunan and Xinjiang, which will enhance the program’s reach across central and western China. Additionally, six sub-regional training centres will be established in Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Shaanxi, ensuring that the training program is accessible to professionals across the entire country. This comprehensive approach is designed to address the evolving needs of the meteorological community in China, adapting to new challenges and opportunities.

These designated principal meteorological training providers will have training resource support from, among others, the WMO Regional Training Centres (RTCs) based in Nanjing, Beijing and Yangzhou. This streamlined open 1+2+6 Formation will be accessible, specialized, complimentary and differentiated in delivering quality training to develop skills, competence and performance in a timely, systematic, pertinent and effective manner.

China’s meteorological training master plan is trainee-, demand- and problem-oriented, addressing general guidelines and objectives as well as the operation of state-of-the-art facilities, smart campuses, intensive platforms and teaching resources. It identifies five stages for transformative training: pre-training, initial training, on-going training, ending training and post-training. It considers the need to enhance both soft and hard skills, for integrated and intelligent management, for tailored contents and personalized lesson plans, and for a combination of face-to-face and online training channels. It uses a variety of teaching methods – immersive, experiential, inquiry-based, interactive and research-and-development (R&D) oriented – and the weighted assessment and evaluation.

CMATC, the 1, is to act as the flagship while the CMARTCs, the 2, and the CMASTCs, the 6, will offer an array of training matrices in in-person and virtual formats at national and international levels. The teachers and trainers will be complimentary in terms of their skill development and shared in an integrated pool of full-time and part-time professional resources. This consolidated institutional approach enables a better focus on the implementation of competencies in line with the WMO Quality Policy Statement and China’s national requirements through a single framework governing courses, trainees, evaluation and supervision. 

Cutting-edge immersive/situational education will be offered using display platforms, intelligent and interactive systems, and high-resolution simulated mock-ups of realistic scenarios for drills on core knowledge and skills. Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and other modern techniques will enhance the realism and immersion of the simulated scenarios. The category-based contextual support platforms – with their electronics, microwave, virtual simulation and software engineering – will provide experiential knowledge-in-practice learning that will refine perceptions and comprehension and permit verification of the skills that have been acquired. This problem-driven inquiry-based approach will use guided questioning for active learning and in-depth thinking. The interactive platform is being designed for capacity building in meteorological services for, inter alia, disaster risk reduction, climate application, especially early warning systems for effective climate action, satellite remote-sensing, weather modification and for specific sectors, including agriculture, transportation, energy, oceanography, forestry/grassland, ecology/environment, finance, tourism, health, aviation and water.

The R&D-oriented platform, which is to be deployed in an intensive and complementary fashion, will focus on any new training demands, emerging or arising from the new generation information technology (IT) such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data. Independent learning and collaborative research are the emphasis of the platform’s four-phased approach, which:

The operation of this efficient, stable, intensive, safe, easy-to-use and scalable meteorological education and training portal will be monitored for accuracy, statistically analysed and scientifically managed. With regulatory, human and financial resources put in place, China is gearing up to implement the 1+2+6 Formation. When fully deployed, it will be able to contribute more to the WMO capacity development framework. The shakeup in the meteorological training provision in China will empower the meteorological staff at home and abroad.