UPDATE: In the six years since the Core Competencies were adopted, the field of public health has seen major changes, from the events of September 11, 2001 to new technologies, and an aging workforce. With new funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Council is undertaking a project to revise and update the Core Competencies, based on recoomendations from Council members, as well as the public. Click here to view the latest information on the updating of the Core Competencies.

The Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals is a set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for the broad practice of public health. The list was adopted by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice on April 11, 2001, after a lengthy review process that involved more than 1,000 public health professionals.

The Core Competencies can help:

• Course providers develop and evaluate competency-based training content and curricula;
• Learners assess and meet their training needs;
• Practice organizations craft job descriptions, implement staff performance reviews, and assess knowledge and skill gaps of individual employees or of entire organizations; and
• Public health field develop discipline-specific competencies.

Three levels of skill—aware, knowledgeable, and advanced—have been assigned to each competency. To learn more about skill levels, please read these Definitions.

View the Core Competencies
Access Tools You Can Use
View/Submit Examples of Use
Read Additional Information

To view these resources, you can also visit www.TRAIN.org and select the "Core Competencies" tab.

• Full List
• By Skill Level
  • Printable PDF Version
• By Essential Public Health Service

Search for Competencies-Based Courses - TRAIN is the nation’s premier learning resource for all professionals who protect the public’s health. Visit www.TRAIN.org to search the database for courses that address the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals.

Framework for Online Training - This framework can be used to develop online competency-based training initiatives that emphasize cross cutting public health skills. This appendix to the framework for online training can be used to select course modules that are designed to improve the skills of learners in specific competency areas.

Management Self Assessment - A state health department developed this tool for assessing the skill and competencies of management.

Competencies to Curriculum Toolkit - This guide can help describe and integrate core and discipline-specific competencies into health professions and continuing education training programs.

Competency Assessment Tool - This framework connects health administration competencies to example work experiences and Masters-level courses that would help workers obtain necessary competencies.

List of Competencies Sets - This table lists competencies sets for public health-related occupations and professions. It was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of Workforce and Career Development.

Guidelines for Assigning Competencies and Skill Levels to Courses - This excerpt from the TRAIN Course Provider Reference Guide can assist in assigning Core Competencies and Bioterrorism and Emergency Readiness competencies to courses, as well as attributing a skill level of aware, knowledgeable, or advanced to training programs.

Development of Discipline-Specific Competencies - The preface to the Draft Applied Epidemiology Tier 2 Competencies describes how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists developed a set of discipline-specific competencies, in part by building on the eight Core Competencies domains. This draft questionnaire is a useful model of how to solicit feedback from the field about the relevance of proposed competencies.

View Examples
Learn how public health institutions and agencies have used the Core Competencies in their workforce development and training efforts by logging on to TRAIN and selecting the "Core Competencies" tab.

This document lists additional examples that were collected at the APHA session entitled Core Competencies: A Roadmap for Action, held November 18, 2003.

Submit Examples
Share with others how your organization has used the Core Competencies – to add examples, please download this form and email it to Council staff. Alternatively, if you are registered on www.TRAIN.org, log on and select the "Core Competencies" tab to submit your examples electronically.

Background Information
The Prologue to the Core Competencies contains additional information about the competencies set and how it was developed. You can also learn more about how the Council drafted the Core Competencies by viewing the list of sources that were consulted during development.

In addition, this report documents the results of a 2006 survey on Core Competencies use by academic institutions. More than 90% of survey respondents said they had integrated the Core Competencies into their curricula. Learn in what ways these institutions used and integrated the Core Competencies.

Current Challenges and Future Directions
This document lists some research questions related to competencies use and impact. It also describes some potential activities to enhance our understanding of how to use competencies most effectively.

Core Competencies Presentations
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals: The New Look in Public Health Practice - This presentation, prepared for the Texas Public Health Training Center, describes what the Core Competencies are, how they were developed, and how they relate to other workforce development initiatives, and identifies a number of their current and potential uses.

Public Health Practice: A Students Guide to Workforce Initiatives - This presentation, prepared for the students at the University of Texas at Houston School of Public Health, focuses on workforce initiatives of significant importance to students, with an emphasis on workforce competencies:
Introduction 
Core Competencies
Public Health Practice Initiatives
Conclusion