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Ready to act on your latest Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) data? Take the next steps to explore and fill training needs with the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) and the TRAIN Learning Network (TRAIN).

Findings from the 2024 PH WINS are now available, and they once again highlight important areas of training for the public health workforce that are well aligned with the Core Competencies and can be met with resources from TRAIN.

Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals

The Core Competencies have long been used to describe the knowledge and skills needed for working in public health. Developed by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice, with facilitation by the Public Health Foundation (PHF), the Core Competencies are widely used by health departments across the country to strengthen workforce development efforts.

TRAIN Learning Network

Training opportunities are critical for ongoing learning and development with the public health workforce. TRAIN, the nation’s leading resource for finding public health training, brings together a wealth of learning opportunities from high-quality course providers across the country and beyond. No need to start from scratch in developing training or search multiple websites to find that course you need; create a free account and easily access more than 5,000 free courses through TRAIN.

PH WINS: Top Training Needs and Interests

For 2024, PH WINS national findings identified top training needs as well as top skill-building interests. Your specific PH WINS data may have identified different priority training needs. Let’s take a look at the number one national training need identified as an example: Budget and Financial Management.

How Does This Relate to the Core Competencies?

Budget and Financial Management are addressed in the Core Competencies within Domain 7: Management and Finance Skills, particularly in Competencies 7.5 and 7.6:

• Secures financial resources
• Manages financial resources

The Core Competencies then take the next step of breaking these competencies down into more targeted skills. Included in the subcompetencies for this area are things like:

• Determining the financial resources needed
• Developing and defending budgets
• Determining how financial resources are distributed
• Negotiating contracts
• Monitoring and adjusting budgets to address changing needs

These skills all fall under the broad area of budget and financial management, but the training you might need for each could be very different. Digging a little deeper into these more specific skills can help guide you in determining where to focus training to get at what your organization really needs. Exploring the other competencies within the Management and Financial Skills Domain may also give you additional ideas of where you might want to focus training activities.

How Does TRAIN Fit In?

Continuing with our example, you may wish to identify training that will help build knowledge and skills related to budget and financial management. With its comprehensive catalog of courses, TRAIN offers a great place to start.

A simple search brings up about 20 free courses on topics like basic budgeting, grant writing, financial health indicators, and community control of budgets that you might consider if you’re looking for a place to begin learning or to build more advanced skills. The search could be made more sophisticated to locate additional courses or refined to pinpoint more specific areas – the choice is yours!

Making All of This Work

Need help making all of this work for your organization? Reach out to us any time for guidance or support: info@phf.org. In addition to the numerous free resources available on our website and through TRAIN, PHF offers a variety of technical assistance and training services as well as subscription packages for TRAIN to support you on this workforce development journey. Contact us today to take the next steps!