- Training Courses and Professional Competency Exam for Diplomatic and Consular Career Roster Promotion.
General
Requirements for roster promotion of the Consular and Diplomatic Career are stated in Decree-Law 274/2000, Sections 25 to 31. According to the provisions of such Decree, the roster promotion of the Diplomatic and Consular Career is made from one category to another, based on the merits, experience, and capability of the respective officers.
The Diplomatic and Consular Career officer may elect the promotion system or remain in the roster category where he/she is found, abiding by the terms foreseen in such Decree.
Annually, the Diplomatic Academy schedules and prepares courses to be offered prior to the professional competency exam for promotions, on topics that the Ministry deems important, in order to supplement and strengthen the education of the officer part of the Colombian Diplomatic and Consular Career Roster.
- Course on Diplomatic Formation
The Course is offered annually and the students are selected by Contest of Enrollment to the Consular and Diplomatic Career, in accordance with the provisions established in Decree-Law 274/2000 and the corresponding annual Resolutions whereby the content of the subjects decided by the Academic Council are defined, among other.
The purpose of the Diplomatic and Consular Formation Course is to provide the students (all of them graduate professionals and even with postgraduate degrees), with an education focused on the practice of diplomacy, preparing them both in theoretical and practical aspects of the diplomatic and consular tasks, taking always into account the needs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia.
The duration of the Course is of two academic semesters and it includes subjects such as: Public International Law; Colombian Foreign Policy; International Relations; Political Science; Colombian Border Policy; Colombian and International Economy; Diplomatic and Consular Function; Diplomatic Negotiation; Protocol and Ceremonies; and Drawing up of Documents and Languages.
Professionals taking the course may homologate the two semesters of the Diplomatic and Consular Formation Course with the first two semesters of the Master’s Degree in “Analysis of Political, Economic and International Contemporary Issues”, offered by the Instituto de Altos Estudios para el Desarrollo (IAED), thus deciding to complete the third semester of the Master’s studies, free of charge, to obtain the “Master’s Degree in Political, Economic, and International Contemporary Issues”.
Upon completion of the Diplomatic and Consular Formation Course, those with the highest scores are chosen -according to the maximum number established in the respective Resolution summoning participants to the Contest– to become a part of the Chancellery as Third Secretaries in a 1-year trial period, after which, having fulfilled the legal requirements, they become eligible to be registered at the Consular and Diplomatic Career Roster.
