From the very inception of CWRDM, education, extension and training activities were given importance, and these assignments were carried out by the Education and Extension Division, which was later renamed as Training, Education and Extension Division.
CWRDM was given the additional responsibility to serve as one of the Water and Land Management Institutes of India, specially for Kerala, in the late 1980s. Thus, the training of the officials of the Irrigation and other user departments/agencies on water resources management became the additional mandate of CWRDM. The proposal of CWRDM was approved by the CWC and the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India and financial assistance was provided by USAID till 1995. Later, this programme was renamed as Water Resources Management Training Programme (WRMTP). Presently, the State Government provides financial assistance to run the training programmes. National Courses on relevant topics are also sponsored by the CWC every year.
The staff of CWRDM, belonging to different disciplines, serve as the core faculty for the training programmes, and resource persons are also invited from other reputed organisations. Both induction courses and in-service courses are conducted for the officials in addition to specialised courses on specific topics. Around 4000 officials and 10000 farmers, Representatives of People, NGOs, SHGs, etc have been trained as a part of this programme. Action Research, Adaptive trials, Seminars, Workshops, etc are also conducted as part of the WRMTP. The training facilities in the campus include: lecture halls, auditorium, trainees hostel, guest house, library, etc.
In addition to the WRMTP, training programmes were also conducted for EC, Swiss Intercorporation, World Bank assisted projects, CWC, NABARD, KSEB, Department of Water Resources, Agriculture and Forestry of Kerala Government .
CWRDM has been identified by various IITs and Universities as an Institute for research leading to graduate and doctoral programmes.
