International Public Health Workforce: Who is Accessing Our Online Training Resources and What We Can Do to Help

Although different countries have different training priorities, the foundational knowledge that health workers need remains largely the same from place to place. Meanwhile, not all health agencies and country systems are equally equipped to consistently deliver education and training to its health workers. This gap, between what workers need and what they have access to, is really an opportunity for building connections around the world.

Online resources and training programs can be shared between health agencies, allowing each to build upon the workforce capacity building efforts of one another. One example of such a network is TRAIN, a service of Public Health Foundation that connects 29 health agencies in the United States, including federal-level partners the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and Veterans Health Administration (VHA), to the global public health workforce. Collectively, agencies on TRAIN offer over 29,000 training opportunities developed by nearly 4,000 providers of training to over 900,000 health workers. Through this network, international public health professionals in nearly all 193 United Nations members were reached in 2014 at no cost to the health worker.

As online access, particularly broadband access, spreads, international health workers will seek and will need high-quality educational and training resources at an ever-increasing pace. Resources such as TRAIN, offering training at no cost, regardless of location, so long as they have internet access, are necessary to build global capacity. Over 60% of international health professionals accessing TRAIN first registered in the last two years alone. Making training available on a global scale fills a critical need.

This presentation will describe online training resources available to public health professionals and the health workers accessing them. The presentation will also include a demonstration showing how organizations can help contribute to available resources.