On behalf of the Government of Slovakia and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Director-General wishes to invite Member States to nominate participants for an advanced laboratory skills training course, to be held in Zemianske Kostol’any, Slovakia, from 24 to 28 October 2011.

The course will be jointly organised by the Government of Slovakia and the Technical Secretariat (hereinafter “the Secretariat”). The main purpose of the course is to assist Member States in their efforts to establish protection capability that will directly benefit their civilian populations. It will provide training to up to 10 specialists who are or who will be associated with the detection and decontamination of chemical agents in their home countries. The course will provide the participants with the opportunity to be trained– under laboratory and field conditions––in how to work with scheduled and toxic industrial chemicals.

Member States that do not yet have detection-and-analysis capabilities are especially encouraged to nominate participants. However, given the objectives of the course and its technical nature, the Secretariat will select candidates carefully, and therefore participants should have a solid technical background. Previous practical experience with military or civil protection is desirable. Individual protective suits must be worn for up to four hours per day, and participants must, therefore, be physically fit and be able to wear such equipment for several hours at a time.