The purpose of workforce development in public health is ultimately to improve health outcomes (i.e., healthier people) by enhancing the training, skills, and performance of public health workers.  When workforce training is utilized, both organizations and individuals are able to increase their competence and become greater assets within the public health community.

  

Workforce training within the public health field is important for several reasons.  First, a well-trained public health workforce supports efforts of public health organizations to assure healthy communities.  Second, workforce training helps to meet the goals of the Essential Public Health Services, which help public health professionals promote physical and mental health and prevent disease, injury, and disability.  Third, many employees can benefit from additional training in the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals. 

  

TRAIN, the nation’s premier learning management system for professionals and volunteers who protect the public’s health, provides thousands of competency-based courses that support workforce training needs and objectives. Through this learning management system, members of the public health workforce have access to both on-site training and distance learning opportunities available in local, state, and national jurisdictions that are linked to the Core Competencies. Kathleen Amos, Project Manager at Public Health Foundation for the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice, stated that having courses assigned a competency facilitates the translation of the concepts contained in the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals into actual professional development opportunities, which includes being able to take action to gain new knowledge and skills.  By providing learners the ability to search for courses by competency or by subject areas that may need improvement, as identified by individuals and organizations themselves, TRAIN supports the development of a competent public health workforce and stronger workforce training.

  

TRAIN’s contribution to improving workforce training is already visible in the data from TRAIN. There are over 25,000 active courses currently on TRAIN, 10,935 of which have at least one public health core competency assigned.  In addition, over 1.3 million courses have been completed on TRAIN and 192,146 of those trainings have been assigned comptetencies.  These figures speak to the important link between determining workforce training needs and having access to trainings and courses within a structured learning management system, such as TRAIN, that are developed to build competencies and skills.

 

To become a member of the TRAIN Community and gain access to the many workforce training opportunities offered please visit the TRAIN website today!