Capacity building of the national institutions on use of GIS technology and applications has been one of the priority areas of ICIMOD since the inception of its MENRIS program in early 1990s. The unprecedented growth and convergence of GIS, GPS, Earth Observation and Internet technologies have dramatically increased the application areas. However, it is also an equally challenging task to transfer these new technologies to the end users for operational purpose. The user-base includes diverse cross section of thematic experts (For example: forester, urban planner, economist, agriculturist), senior management, technical personnel, computer specialists and the general public. ICIMOD has designed customised training courses and conducted numerous trainings on different thematic areas in response to the needs of different audiences. These courses range from a couple of days awareness training targeted to the senior managers and policy makers to on-the-job trainings of much longer durations. The courses are designed with a modular approach keeping in view the needs of diverse group of participants. The use of local datasets with practical applications, extensive hands-on exercises and the field visits provide the participants a feeling of working on real projects and build their confidence to work on the system after completing the training.