The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded Public Health Training Centers (PHTC)* are partnerships between accredited schools of public health, related academic institutions and public health agencies and organizations.  The PHTC Program is designed to improve the Nation's public health system by strengthening the technical, scientific, managerial and leadership competence of current and future public health professionals. 

Based on the recommendations of the IOM report, The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century, Public Health Training Centers assess the learning needs of the public health workforce and provide training to meet those needs, as a foundation to improve the Nation’s public health infrastructure, as well as to achieve Healthy People 2010 objectives, a set of health objectives for the Nation.  Currently, 45 states (including Oklahoma as of September 2006), the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Associated Pacific Islands are covered by PHTC activity.  To accomodate the basic, generalist public health training needs of the public health workforce, approximately 60% of training and training tools offered by the PHTCs are distance-based.  Visit the National PHTC Network Database of distance-accessible trainings on the right sidebar menu. For face-to-face trainings, please contact each individual PHTC via the PHTC Contact List link at the right. For all-hazards preparedness resources that build upon and complement the generalist core training provided by the PHTC Network, visit the Centers for Public Health Preparedness Network.

*The PHTC program was established under Section 766 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended by Public Law 105-392 in November 1998.  Principal support for this program is provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. DHHS.   

PHTC and Healthy People 2010

A goal of Healthy People 2010 is to ensure that federal, tribal, state, and local health agencies have the infrastructure to provide essential public health services effectively. 

Objective 23-10 seeks to increase the proportion of federal, tribal, state, and local public health agencies that provide continuing education to develop competency in essential public health services for their employees. 

The National PHTC Network activities support this objective in the following ways:

• By assuring maximum distribution of competency-based training to members of the current public health workforce, using a full array of delivery modes including face-to-face, on-line, print, and interactive TV.
  • Over 280,000 public health workers—180,000 from state and local health departments—have received competency-based training.
  • Over 1,900 competency-based training courses have been developed or offered by PHTC.
           
• By collaborating with over 340 public health practice organizations across the country.
  • Nearly 2,500 health departments were represented by public health workers trained by PHTC in Fiscal Year 2005.
  • By conducting needs-assessments and offering foundational public health training based on the core public health competencies and the Essential Public Health Services.