Mapping competencies taught in public health – Experience of the Europubhealth Consortium

BACKGROUND: Public health education aims at producing a competent workforce. The WHO-ASPHER framework proposes a set of relevant public health competencies organised in 10 sections (e.g. science practice, leadership, law policies and ethics etc). As part of the Europubhealth consortium (EPHc), eight universities collaborate for the delivery of a 2-year international public health master course. The course includes a first-year, or foundation component (4 options), and a second-year or specialisation component (7 options). OBJECTIVES: In 2020, EPHc decided to use the framework in order to map the competencies addressed, and the level of proficiency aimed at, by each Y1 and Y2 option of the Master. To that end, component's coordinators answered an 84-item questionnaire covering the whole framework. Answers were summarised by calculating mean proficiency levels for each competency section. RESULTS: There were differences in overall proficiency levels between years with, as expected, higher scores in Y2. Options in Y1 reached medium to high proficiency scores for the sections “science practice”, “health promotion” and “communication” with scores of 2.6 to 3 (on a 1 to 4 scale). When compared with Y1 on a heat-map, Y2 options displayed more contrasted profiles, typically focussing (i.e. scores > 3.5) on 3 out of the 10 sections of competencies. Except for the “collaborations and partnership” section, the training pathways offered by the EPHc seem to offer opportunities for a high proficiency level in all domains of competencies. CONCLUSIONS: The mapping proved a useful exercise to identify strengths and complementarities among the EPHc. The results suggest that the EPHc master course is coherent and offers students opportunities to gain proficiency in most competencies relevant to public health practice. KEY MESSAGES: • Competency-based education is likely to shape the future public health workforce. • The WHO-ASPHER framework proved a useful tool to map public health competencies addressed in the teaching of the Europubhealth international Master.