Capacity development is a key factor for supporting ownership and action towards resilient coastal and marine ecosystems. The Blue Solutions Initiative developed modular marine training courses – the Blue Training Courses – focusing on marine spatial planning, sustainable ocean-based economies and blue leadership.

• The Blue Planning in Practice training course (BPiP, 5 training days) introduces the theory and practical starting points of coastal and marine spatial planning and aims to strengthen planning, implementation, and management at sea. The training course builds upon a range of existing planning frameworks and practical experiences and the guidance of more than­ 30 experts in the field from around the world.
• The Sustainable Blue Economy training provides tools and guidance to support pathways towards sustainable ocean-based economies, which enhances wellbeing, prosperity and social equity, while protecting, regenerating and maintaining the integrity of the environment.
• The Blue Leadership Journey strengthens individual and collective leadership skills to enable meaningful change in systems. With this training, ocean leaders learn to better deal with challenges, act in complex situations, and become change agents.

The training courses aim to strengthen the capacities of decision makers, practitioners, and stakeholders to overcome competing interests and uncoordinated approaches at sea. They provide participants with tools to find their own solutions to respond to the challenges facing the marine environment.

All training materials are open source and available online. If you are interested in convening one of the Blue Training Courses, feel free to adapt it to your context and needs. The Blue “Cookbook for Conveners” will help guide you on the journey of developing a training. The document is intended to support training conveners with the planning and implementation of training courses. It does so by providing an overview of the offered trainings, the various materials, and current trainers.