New Zealand Certificate in Public Health
What is it?
The New Zealand Certificate in Public Health (the Certificate) fulfils the Ministry of Health's aim to make a generic, undergraduate level 5 public health qualification widely available for the public health and primary health workforces. The Certificate is in the process of being registered on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework with the aim that it will be available for the public health sector in 2013.
Why is it needed?
Only a small percentage of the diverse public health workforce holds a generic public health qualification, as these qualifications are currently only offered at postgraduate level. The Certificate in Public Health (Level 5) is designed to fill the gap at the beginning of the qualification staircase, part of an overall strategy to build a workforce that shares common public health language and competencies.
What will it do?
The purpose of the Certificate is to provide the public health sector with a workforce with sufficient depth and breadth of knowledge and practical skills to develop and implement public health initiatives. Initiatives that aim to improve population health outcomes overall, and address health inequalities for Maori, Pasifika and other specific population groups.
Graduates will work with groups and communities to promote and protect public health, and improve health outcomes in a public health context. They will demonstrate the baseline knowledge, skills and attributes required of a public health practitioner, capable of working both independently and in a collaborative manner to analyse, communicate, plan, advocate for, implement and evaluate public health initiatives. The Graduate Profile lists more information.
The Ministry of Health aims to require all staff of public health employers to hold formal public health qualifications. The Certificate will provide an accessible baseline public health qualification that will allow the Ministry to establish this contractual requirement for its 250 funded public health providers.
Who is it for?
The Certificate is intended to build capacity and capability among Maori and Pasifika employees by providing an accessible and culturally appropriate qualification that can be staircased into higher qualifications. The Certificate incorporates cultural knowledge and skills, so that non-Maori and non-Pasifika workers better participate with and promote health within Maori, Pasifika and other cultures.
The Certificate will also be relevant to -
- people working in public health who hold tertiary qualifications in fields other than public health
- people from the primay health sector who need or want public health skills and knowledge.
It may also offer an appropriate educational entry point for immigrants to New Zealand whose jobs require competencies that relate to the New Zealand public health sector.
Over time it is envisaged that the Certificate will become the baseline qualification held by the non-regulated public health workforce, provide a recruitment pool for the regulated workforce, and increase the sector's effectiveness in improving the health of communities.
How has it come about?
The Certificate is based on the generic public health competencies (GPHCs) which were developed by the Public Health Association and sector stakeholders in 2007.
The Ministry of Health has been working with Careerforce (an Industry Training Organisation) to turn the GPHCs into an undergraduate qualification. A panel of credible public health practitioners have provided vital input into this process and various rounds of sector based consulations have also occured.
2010 Consultation meetings
Public health providers were invited to four meetings that were held in August 2010 to discuss the structure and delivery of the Certificate in Public Health:
- One generic public health provider meeting in Auckland
- One generic public health provider meeting in Wellington
- One Maori public health provider meeting in Auckland
- One Pacific public health provider meeting in Auckland
Public health sector advice
Participants at the meetings were asked to discuss and provide written comment, including their preferences, on three proposed delivery models. The participants also offered suggestions of other models they thought might be options or add value to the proposed models.
The Ministry obtained a very thorough and in-depth understanding about what the sector was asking for, not only in terms of how the qualification is delivered, but also on the structure and level of the qualification, its target audience, the length of time it will take to achieve the qualification, and stair-casing into ongoing learning pathways.
The written and verbal feedback from the consultation meetings is available (see documents below). Ongoing comment is welcome and should be directed to Jo_Elvidge@moh.govt.nz.