Is Australia's current public health education fit-for-purpose? A reflection on past, present and future

Abstract

In Australia, consistent with the global picture, the development of a multidisciplinary public health workforce and its education have evolved, mainly because of government reforms driven by comprehensive social initiatives. Recent polycrises - natural and man-made disasters and crises - shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of the Australian public health effort and its workforce education. Internationally accepted and recently redeveloped multidisciplinary competencies are available, however Australian public health education is not routinely accredited, and much of the public health workforce lacks appropriate education and training. Public health qualifications are not routinely required for the public health workforce so, for graduates, appropriate work is hard to find. Academic public health staff are driven by metrics, that do not measure education quality or appropriateness of the content. In the current era of polycrises as well as rapidly evolving scientific knowledge, public health education providers must work in tandem with governments to prepare a workforce ready to deliver essential public health functions with the flexibility to adapt to emerging health challenges, pointing to how education must be developed to ensure an appropriately educated, trained, future-proofed workforce in both the art and science of public health.