Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 122, Issue 10, October 2008, Pages 1047-1050
Public Health

Minisymposium
Improving access to and provision of public health education and training in the UK

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2008.03.008Get rights and content

Summary

This paper examines some of the challenges facing public health education and training in the UK, especially those relating to the wider workforce. It identifies key drivers for the need to improve access to and provision of public health education and training, such as the establishment of the Voluntary Register for Public Health Specialists and the launch of the Public Health Skills and Career Framework. The paper also touches briefly on developments in public health education and training in the USA, noting where lessons could be learnt by both countries. The paper notes how the traditional approach of structured training, while still valuable for those wishing to work at the specialist level, needs to be combined with an approach that enables other workers to achieve competence in public health. This challenge is being met, in part, through provision of online resources and teaching, and the development of Teaching Public Health Networks. The challenges facing the UK are similar to those facing the public health sector in the USA. As such, the two countries can learn from one another in order to address this important workforce development issue.

Introduction

This paper examines some of the challenges facing public health education and training in the UK, especially those relating to the wider workforce. It identifies key drivers for the need to improve access to and provision of public health education and training, such as the establishment of the Voluntary Register for Public Health Specialists and the launch of the Public Health Skills and Career Framework. The paper also touches briefly on developments in public health education and training in the USA, noting where lessons could be learnt by both countries.

Section snippets

Specialist training in public health

Historically, public health education and training in the UK has focused on the training of the specialist workforce, through the provision of 5-year regionally based training programmes in public health.1 The strengths of the training programmes are that they provide high-quality, structured training in all the major aspects of public health, both in academic and service public health settings. Those on specialist schemes not only have the opportunity to complete a Master's course in public

Need for improved public health education and training

However, recent developments have highlighted the need for improved provision of and access to public health education and training in the UK. One major development was the creation of the Voluntary Register for Public Health Specialists in 2003.4 In addition to registering those working in public health following completion of a specialist training scheme, the register is also open to those working at a senior level in public health but who had not been through any structured training

Responding to the challenge

Increasingly, there will be demand for flexible delivery of education and training to meet the needs of those working across the spectrum of public health practice. This might be in the form of workshops (both inside and outside academic institutions), short courses or block teaching whereby a module is delivered over a number of days or weeks, rather than throughout a traditional semester. In addition to more flexible organization of face-to-face teaching, use of information technology to

Conclusions

This paper has outlined some of the challenges facing public health education and training in the UK. The emergence of the Voluntary Register and the Public Health Skills and Career Framework have highlighted the need to improve provision of and access to education and training for a wide spectrum of the public health workforce. The traditional approach of structured training, while still valuable for those wishing to work at the specialist level, needs to be combined with an approach that

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