title: Charting a course to competency: an approach to mapping public health core competencies to existing trainings.
abstract: Consistent with other professional fields, the goals of public health training have moved from a focus on knowledge transfer to the development of skills or competencies. At least six national competency sets have been developed in the past decade pertaining to public health professionals. State and local public health agencies are increasingly using competency sets as frameworks for staff development and assessment. Mapping competencies to training has potential for enhancing the value of public health training during resource-constrained times by directly linking training content to the desired skills. For existing public health trainings, the challenge is how to identify competencies addressed in those courses in a manner that is not burdensome and that produces valid results. This article describes a process for mapping competencies to the learning objectives, assignments, and assessments of existing trainings. The process presented could be used by any training center or organization that seeks to connect public health workforce competencies to previously developed instruction. Public health practice can be strengthened more effectively if trainings can be selected for the desired practice skills or competencies.
authors.affiliation: 1Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Latrissa L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Neiworth
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Allan
authors.forename: Luann
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: D'Ambrosio
authors.forename: Marlene
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coplen-Abrahamson
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D040381:Education, Public Health Professional / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards*; D015980:Public Health Practice; D013192:Staff Development; D014481:United States
keywords: competency mapping; training; workforce development