OSTLTS Welcomes Public Health Apprentices

Over 80 apprentices along with their state and local supervisors attended the Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (OSTLTS) Public Health Apprentice Program (PHAP) orientation and training at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Monday, August 16 through Friday, August 20, 2010. The training brought apprentices and host-site supervisors from across 23 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, marking the transition of PHAP from a pilot program to a nationwide public health training program.

Dr. Judith Monroe, OSTLTS Director and CDC Deputy Director, opened the training with a warm welcome to the Public Health Apprentices as the newest OSTLTS team members and the next generation of public health leaders. She encouraged the apprentices to share their unique and innovative ideas to address public health challenges with a reminder that success will require effective communications and strong connections with their state and local colleagues.  Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC Director and ATSDR Administrator, offered a CDC welcome to the attendees on Tuesday and shared his enthusiasm for the program and his vision for apprentices becoming future public health leaders. Through the course of his thirty minute address, Dr. Frieden spoke about the value of hard work and the importance of gaining a broad range of frontline experience in public health programs and science.  Dr. Frieden described his experiences building capacity at the community level and emphasized the importance of empowering communities to use data and information for decision-making.

Background

The Public Health Advisor (PHA) series began in 1948 with a half dozen college graduates beginning a career path in public health. PHAs were hired in groups of several hundred a year, filling the need for frontline public health workers at the state and local level, as well as training future public health managers for CDC. In 1994, this large effort was discontinued, and since that time, local and state health departments have continued to request more field assignees from CDC. The call for “boots on the ground” from state and local public health programs and the need for CDC mid-level career public health managers to fill vacancies that require experience working in local health departments has become more evident over the past several years. In 2006, a career pathway for entry-level public health workers was created that included opportunities for gaining knowledge of public health systems, skills in front-line public health practice and program implementation, and experience in preparedness and response activities.  From this effort, the Public Health Apprentice Program (PHAP) was formed, and an initial pilot program with the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) was launched.

In 2007, ten apprentices participated in the PHAP pilot project. Assigned to local county health department host sites, Apprentices engaged in day-to-day operations to gain first-hand experience and develop skills in front-line service, in state and local health departments. An additional 27 apprentices were hired in 2008, and were placed in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, and Texas.

Due to budget constraints, no apprentices were hired in 2009. However, efforts to build the program began at that time. Due to economic crises at local and state health departments, the need for entry-level and mid-career public health professionals became even greater. PHAP was adjusted from a three to a two year program with geographic expansion of host sites throughout the nation and management of the Apprentices was centralized to CDC headquarters.

Current

During the month of August, the 2010 class of 65 Public Health Apprentices, selected from over 1400 applicants, arrived to begin their official CDC orientation after nearly a month long period of adapting and integrating into their assigned host sites. During this orientation, the apprentices participated in training to build their public health knowledge and skills, including instruction on effective communication and professionalism, philosophy of public health, public health sciences, and administrative details of being a federal employee.

At the same time, the current 2008 apprentices returned to CDC for training sessions of their own, including team building and cross-cultural collaboration, along with networking opportunities with CDC programs and the 2010 apprentices.

Today, all of these apprentices are back in the field working at their local sites putting into practice what was emphasized throughout their training.  They work in a variety of program areas including Public Health Preparedness, Chronic Disease, STD/HIV/TB, Environmental Health and more.

Looking Forward

CDC leadership has shown support for the sustainable expansion of the Public Health Apprentice Program. By 2011, the program seeks to increase its presence in more jurisdictions with particular emphasis on expanding public health apprenticeship opportunities to Tribes and additional territories. All of these efforts are focused on rebuilding the public health workforce pipeline with more “boots on the ground” to increase front-line public health knowledge and skills.

For more information on the Public Health Apprentice Program, please visit: www.cdc.gov/phap.