The importance of geodata infrastructures (GDIs) for governance has implications for the national (public) organisations responsible for establishing and operating these GDIs. Hence, besides the education of individuals, capacity building of the entire organisation is required. The goal of education is to prepare (young) professionals for their tasks ahead, while the goal of capacity building is to simultaneously shake up the organisation that will employ them. The aim is to strengthen an organisation so that it can assume responsibility for designing, managing and sustaining development. For this, not only are thematic professionals required but also staff that can formulate, design, manage and negotiate with other organisations and central government in order to address organisational and institutional issues in support of the acceptance of technological solutions. Hence governments should focus on capacity building that comprises human resources development, organisational strengthening and institutional strengthening, of which education is part and parcel.

Rapid technological developments, as well as developments in demand for information, imply the continuous upgrading of professionals as part of the “lifelong learning” principle observed throughout present-day society. This in turn challenges the education and training institutes themselves to keep up-to-date with scientific and technological developments while simultaneously dealing with the proliferating variety in demand. This requires a strong interaction between education and research.
Initially, at ITC, education consisted of post-graduate training of short to medium duration. To address the requirements resulting from technological developments (processes) and the incorporation as well as of application of geospatial information management principles (context), education has developed over the years into the current set of six separate programmes covering a large range of specialisations. We have educational programmes on topics like geoinformatics, geoinformatics management, urban planning and land administration, water resources management, water resources and environmental management and earth resources and environmental geoscience. In addition to adjusting the content, we have also accommodated changes in demand for the type of training.

GI-NET is the network of partnerships that ITC developed over the last five years with universities and institutes on four different continents. Through this network, we deliver joint educational programmes, in addition to the educational activities conducted here in Enschede, Netherlands. In this setting, we provide our educational services in the countries or regions where many of our course participants come from. Such an international education network improves the effectiveness, flexibility and productivity of the ITC educational system. The nodes of the network also give regional support to the course participants and alumni by arranging regional seminars and workshops.
In India, ITC has joint courses with IIRS and with CSSTEAP and many joint activities with the Survey of India and other survey organisations. Further more, we have joint research activities with NRSA in Hyderabad.
Despite the closer cooperation with universities in research and education, ITC’s mission remains capacity building and organisational strengthening of organisations in less developed countries.