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Public health training

ECDC’s Training role aims to ‘support and coordinate training programmes in order to assist Member States and the Commission to have sufficient numbers of trained specialists, in particular in epidemiological surveillance and field investigations, and to have a capability to define health measures to control disease outbreaks.’ (Article 9, Regulation 851/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004, establishing ECDC).

As a core function of ECDC’s mandate, public health training is delivered by the corresponding section composed of two groups: ECDC Fellowship Programme and Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Input via subject matter experts from disease programmes and public health function sections is essential for training activities, in particular for the CPD offer.

Training activities are focused in three areas: fellowships, courses for continuous professional development, and virtual tools and materials for public health training. 

Training priorities

ECDC training activities contribute to capacity strengthening and workforce development for disease prevention and control in the European Union/European Economic Area and the European neighbourhood.

Following the Public Health Training Strategy of 2015, ECDC training formats and content respond to priorities or gaps identified in regular training needs assessments in consultation with the national focal points for training. ECDC has coordinated the development of Competencies frameworks, intended as a reference for trainers and employers, when designing national training programmes, or planning workforce strengthening/recruitment.
These activities have three strategic targets:

  • Capacity building: The ECDC Fellowship Programme with the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET),and the Public Health Microbiology training programme (EUPHEM) path; and Continuous Professional Development of public health professionals in the Member States. 
  • Strengthening European and international training networks: applied epidemiology training programmes (including MediPIET), Mediterranean Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (MediPIET), contribution to training networks and instructional design support. Active contributions to the TEPHINET (global network of FETPs), and the Global Laboratory Leadership Programme (GLLP), and 
  • Virtual training centre function: ECDC Virtual Academy a learning management system to support on-line and blended learning activities; and the training extranet with restricted access. 

More on ECDC training activities

Networks and partnerships

In the area of Public Health Training, ECDC works with different a number of networks and partners:

 

Who we are

Read more on the ECDC website

Fellowships

ECDC organises fellowships on field epidemiology and public health microbiology in the EU and Black Sea and Mediterranean regions.