The WFPHA Professional Education and Training (PET) Working Group
Teaching public health: Safeguarding public health education and training through program accreditation
The work of the WFPHA Professional Education and Training (PET) working group is dedicated to promoting best practice in education and training in the arts and sciences of public health, ensuring that the workforce remains consistently skilled and competent for service delivery. The WFPHA Global Charter for the Public’s Health provides a distilled description of public health services and underpinning service enablers.The use of competency standards across education and training programs and continuing professional development is one strategy to underpin an appropriately educated and trained workforce capable of being employed in a range of regular public health settings, both domestically and internationally, and redeployed during emergencies. Members of the PET have been involved with designing and reviewing competency standards over many years and in many countries, more recently participating in the WHO National workforce capacity for essential public health functions project, in particular the Global competency and outcomes framework for the important public health functions work, a compendium of analyses of public health skills and practices included in 126 individual sets of public health and directly related competency sets.
The Importance of Accreditation
Accreditation is a rigorous process of independent peer review, and is one way both education and training programs and public health services are well designed, competently delivered, and appropriately adapted to the public health needs of local, national, and international populations.
Many professional organizations providing training in specialist public health areas offer program accreditation and sometimes professional registration, for example, public health physicians, the international field epidemiology TEPHINET program, health promotion, and the national professional environmental health boards.
Similarly, service organizations need to be visibly capable of delivering locally appropriate, well-defined essential public health functions. For example, the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is specifically designed for building and accrediting key public health programs within USA health bureaucracies to enhance, through accreditation, the ability of health departments to respond flexibly to public health emergencies, prioritize services based on identified community need, strengthen community-service orientation of health departments, and to promote a culture of quality and performance improvement, to be able to assure all stakeholders of the broad and secure capabilities of their health departments.
There are no overarching national or international professional public health bodies for which public health education and training (or, therefore, registration) is a necessary admission criterion. However, three agencies accredit education and training programs and/or service delivery organizations internationally. All of these have strong links to appropriate national and international public health institutions. These organizations are listed here, with brief notes about their organizational orientation and links to their agency websites. Organizations seeking accreditation can therefore identify an agency that offers accreditation appropriate to their setting and requirements.
We encourage all public health teaching and learning programs and service organizations to consider accreditation and, in time, reaccreditation as a valuable means to achieve peer review and ensure excellence in future standards for public health teaching and service delivery.
Public Health Education and Training Program Accreditation Agencies
1. APHEA (Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation)
The Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA) is an accreditation agency with a decade of worldwide experience in strengthening public health education and workforce quality.
The AAPHEA’sgovernance structure brings together considerable academic and practice-based experience, with Board representation from the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) and the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI).
The APHEA accreditation has been designed to assure quality in public health education and training, advance the science and practice of public health, and align with European and international quality assurance frameworks.
The AAPHEA’saccreditation process involves curriculum validation, self-assessment, and site visits by trained reviewers. Accreditation lasts 3 to 6 years, depending on the program.
Find more information about AAPHEA’sorganization and its accreditation processes.
2. CEPH (Council on Education for Public Health)
The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) is ““an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit schools of public health, and public health programs outside schools of public health.”” Its mission is to assure quality in public health education and training to advance the science and practice of public health. The CEPH Board of Councillors comprises faculty leaders from schools and programs of public health, senior-level public health practitioners, and members of the general public.
The CEPH website provides detailed information on its accreditation processes and resources, including training workshops. Accreditation is based on the CEPH MPH Foundational Knowledge & Competencies, applied across all tertiary degree levels from BBachelor’sto Doctoral. CCEPH’saccreditation process includes preparing a self-evaluation and a site visit by peer evaluators and provides multiple opportunities for consultation, technical assistance, and training throughout the process. Full accreditation lasts for 5 to 7 years.
Whilst designed for American public health programs, CEPH also accredits international public health schools and programs.
Find more information about CCEPH’sorganization and accreditation processes.
3. ICAPHE (International Council for Accreditation and Advancement of Public Health Education)
The International Council for Accreditation and Advancement of Public Health Education (ICAPHE) is an accrediting body specifically established to advance public health education worldwide and develop a workforce capable of addressing international public health challenges.
The ICAPHE is committed to ensuring excellence in public health education by enhancing the quality and impact of global public health education through ethics, equity, sound science, rigorous accreditation processes, research, collaboration, and the sharing of good practice.
The ICAPHE website includes information on accreditation of schools and programs, continuing professional development, curriculum design, research, collaboration, opportunities to share good practice, and needs assessments for schools and programs.
The ICAPHE’s accreditation process is rooted in international best practices for accreditation agencies and in the World Health Organization National Workforce Capacity for Essential Public Health Functions documents, particularly the Global competency and outcomes framework for the essential public health functions. Accreditation lasts for six years for schools and programs and three years for continuing professional development.
Find more information about IICAPHE’sorganisation and accreditation processes.