The TRAIN Learning Network continues to grow at an impressive rate - now serving the needs of over 1.75 million health workers – showing a sharp 50% increase in learners since late 2015. This expansion is fueled by impactful partnerships with 29 TRAIN affiliates, which are states, national organizations, or educational institutions that have purchased a customized TRAIN portal and collaborate to disseminate, track, and share trainings for professionals who work to improve the health of the population. These agencies, their staffs, and other national organizations have long recognized TRAIN as the foundational partner in building an effective and efficient workforce.
Recently, a report from the National Consortium for Public Health Workforce Development highlighted the need to build skills for a more strategic public health workforce due to “significant transitions” taking place in governmental public health. As your organization addresses this challenge, consider the TRAIN Learning Network as your primary partner in developing strategic skills and building workforce capacity to improve health in your community.
With this report as the most recent reminder of the need to build public health workforce capacity, we have assembled the top five ways that the TRAIN Learning Network can help to address this call-to-action in your organization:
1 - Strategic investment in public health workforce developmentThe TRAIN Learning Network provides a cost-effective, centralized learning platform. Training can be cost-prohibitive for many individuals and organizations; however, through the TRAIN Learning Network, learners have free access to thousands of public health knowledge and skill related courses.
2 - Having a coordinated / centralized system for virtual trainings
The TRAIN Learning Network assists in helping to create efficient learning infrastructure by coordinating and centralizing courses. The TRAIN Learning Network provides a single access point for learners, leveraging a vast range of content and expertise. Centralized learning decreases the need to search multiple websites to find public health courses, allows learners to track their learning, and provides organizations the tools to track workforce development efforts efficiently.
3 - Promote learning collaboration between health departments, agencies, and their partners
The TRAIN Learning Network is a community focused on the ongoing development of the health workforce. The TRAIN Learning Network assists in creating collaborations where the learning needs of one organization can be met by the available content from another organization. Therefore, learners are able to access a wide range of trainings that their organization might not otherwise have available.
4 - Cross-discipline training to break down silos
The TRAIN Learning Network provides a unique opportunity for learners, who can access courses that cut across disciplines. A learner who works primarily in emergency management can take courses related to infectious diseases, drinking water safety, or a myriad of other topics related to other disciplines.
5 - Sustaining learning beyond funding and training cycles
The TRAIN Learning Network provides access to enduring materials across disciplines from various learning providers. Many courses accessible through the TRAIN Learning Network do not cease to exist because a specific funding cycle has ended, but remain available until they are no longer needed.
In addition to the top 5 ways the TRAIN Learning Network builds public health workforce capacity, the TRAIN Learning Network continues to align and develop strategic training plans that promote focused and purposeful development of workforce capabilities. We look forward to working with partners across disciplines to ensure a well-trained workforce that improves the health and wellbeing of the population.
Have you identified another way that the TRAIN Learning Newtork has helped your organization build capacity? Have questions or feedback about using TRAIN? Post a comment below or email us your thoughts at training@phf.org.