WHAT COMPETENCES ARE NEEDED TO BUILD A TRANS-EUROPEAN NATURE NETWORK?

Now, more than ever, Europe needs a resilient and well-connected network of conserved areas. The NaturaConnect project will help build the capacity needed to support European Union Member States to deliver and manage a coherent Trans-European Nature Network (TEN-N). A Training Needs Assessment Tool (TNA) has been developed to enable professionals responsible for planning and implementing protected and conserved areas, to gain an insight into their current competencies and future training needs.  

PURPOSE OF THE TRAINING NEEDS ASSESSMENT

The NaturaConnect Training Needs Assessment (TNA) helps professionals determine their competences for connectivity and conservation planning, and match these to NaturaConnect training content on the TEN-N. The tool is based on the IUCN Global Register of Competences for Protected Area Practitioners, and contains a selected list of competences, which were considered to be specifically relevant for planning and implementing protected and conserved areas, to achieve the 30×30 target of the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the implementation of Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
The tool is a comprehensive self-assessment questionnaire, that takes approximately 30-40 minutes to complete. The results will be processed anonymously and will not be associated with a person or a name.

WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THE ASSESSMENT?

The primary target group for this TNA are conservation practitioners, spatial planners, natural resource managers, national authorities and ministerial departments responsible for planning and implementing protected and conserved areas.

How you can use the results of your self-assessment:

  • Improve your performance by knowing your strengths and weaknesses in the context of conservation planning.
  • Identify relevant competences for your work.

  • Develop your own capacity development strategies, potentially with support of your organisation/entity.

  • Participate in selected training courses or modules that address your specific training needs.

 

How NaturaConnect will use the results of the self-assessments:

  • To fine-tune existing training content and make decisions on the type of content of offer on the NaturaConnect Learning Platform, which offers a self-paced learning course composed of 11 modules on various subjects that aim to improve conservation planning. The modules are being developed by project partners and will be launched throughout 2024 and 2025. The Learning Platform is publicly available from spring 2024 and is free of charge.

  • To analyse the results on different scales (e.g. European and national level) in order to identify training needs that can be addressed by future projects or initiatives. All data submitted is handled with strict confidentiality, complying with EU GDPR, ensuring no individual response is directly referenced during the analysis.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The framework underlying this assessment defines possible skills, knowledge and attitudes required by people working in protected area management. The competences in the NaturaConnect TNA Tool have been adopted from the original IUCN Global Register by selecting the key competences specifically needed in the context of conservation planning; and include:

Each competence category contains various single competences. In your assessment, you will evaluate each competence individually on a scale from 1 (limited or no experience) to 4 (great experience and competence). You will also assess how important the competence is for your work (not relevant to core/critical).
The competence framework uses four levels of personnel, based on the type of work and responsibility of a person.

The associated job levels for the target groups for this assessment are job level 2 (middle manager, technical specialist), 3 (senior manager), and 4 (executive). The NaturaConnect TNA Tool offers three different assessments, one for each job level containing different competences, based on the recommendations from the IUCN Global Register.

HOW TO GET STARTED?

1. Visit the platform www.propark.ro/naturaconnect and create an account.
2. Familiarise yourself with the different job levels and choose the assessment for the specific job level you identify most with (2, 3 or 4).
3. Start your assessment. You can pause and get back to it at any time before submission.
4. The results of your assessment will be available for you directly after submission.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO THE ASSESSMENT?

  • Approximately 40 minutes of your time.

  • A stable internet connection.

  • An account on the platform.

Thank you very much for your participation in the assessment and for helping us in understanding your training needs and building relevant content.