FIPEd’s Workforce Development Hub (WDH) – formerly the Education Development Team (EDT) – connects and supports units within FIP and external to FIP (for example the World Health Organization Department of Human Resources for Health) to achieve the goal of transforming the global pharmaceutical workforce to meet the health needs of societies. The hub provides a focal point for project work and activity based on FIP’s education and workforce mission, and also for the wider mission of FIP and its constituencies.
The WDH brings together experts to undertake projects to generate workforce intelligence and provide evidence-based resources and tools to inform and support education and workforce development. In association with the membership outreach provided by FIP’s Academic Pharmacy Section and Academic Institutional Membership, the hub will provide a wide scope of access for project work for FIPEd and FIP.
The hub’s activities expand across three key workstreams:
Operating principles: A collaborative hub of workforce and education experts and collaborators
For collaborative projects, the WDH will draw on the following strategic principles in order to pursue its remit:
The aims of the hub’s projects are to gain a better understanding of the global education landscape, innovations in education, and new methods and tools in specific areas of workforce development. Workforce Development Hub experts work with wider forums and expert groups to implement their work plan through literature reviews, case-study development, policy analyses, and quantitative and qualitative research, in order to develop evidence-based frameworks and guidance, and to inform policy and practice development. The reports and tools are tested, validated and shared with the FIP’s global community of practice to be used and implemented.
The hub, together with other global educationalists and researchers, publish research in the journal Pharmacy Education (editor Timothy Rennie).
The current WDH Hub focal areas and leads, under the direction of Professor Ian Bates (University College London, UK), are:
Academic and institutional capacity: Claire Anderson
Advanced practice and specialisation: Kirstie Galbraith
Continuing professional development & continuing education: Toyin Tofade
e-Platforms and IT-based learning: Ian Larson
Interprofessional education & collaborative practice: Jill Boone
Pharmacy technicians & support workforce: Susan James
Quality assurance: Mike Rouse
Workforce intelligence and the Global Pharmacy Workforce Observatory: Christopher John
