Multi-Cadre Health Workforce Planning, Retention & Localization Training Course

Course Overview

Learning Objectives

• Analyze health labor-market dynamics, including supply, demand, need, and unemployment of trained graduates.
• Distinguish needs-based, demand-based, and workforce-to-population approaches to health workforce planning.
• Build multi-cadre projections covering physicians, nurses, pharmacists, allied health, and administrators.
• Apply the WISN method to estimate staffing requirements across facilities and cadres.
• Assess the education pipeline, graduate absorption, and attrition at each stage.
• Evaluate skill-mix and task-sharing options to close cadre-specific shortages efficiently.
• Diagnose the drivers of turnover, burnout, and intention to leave among health professionals.
• Design retention strategies for critical specialties, rural facilities, and early-career staff.
• Manage international recruitment ethically in line with the WHO Global Code of Practice.
• Develop localization plans for health professions that balance national targets with service continuity.
• Structure training-to-hire, sponsorship, and career-pathway programs for national health graduates.
• Establish workforce data, indicators, and governance to monitor plan implementation.

Who Should Attend

Learning Outcomes

• Interpret labor-market data to identify shortages, surpluses, and maldistribution by cadre and region.
• Select a suitable planning approach for a national, regional, or hospital-group context.
• Produce baseline and scenario-based supply and demand projections for several cadres.
• Calculate staffing requirements with workload-based methods and interpret the resulting gaps.
• Map the education pipeline and estimate graduate output, absorption, and attrition.
• Propose skill-mix and task-sharing changes that respect professional scope and regulation.
• Analyze turnover, exit, and engagement data to explain why staff leave.
• Design a targeted retention package for a hard-to-fill specialty or remote facility.
• Assess international recruitment practices against ethical recruitment principles.
• Prepare a phased localization plan for selected health professions.
• Outline a training-to-hire pathway linking education providers and employers.
• Present an integrated workforce plan with indicators and governance arrangements.

Course Outline