Continuing Education Programme
Department of Community Health Sciences
Medical College, Faculty of Health Sciences
Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

INTRODUCTION
In Pakistan, as in other developing countries, managers and mid-level professionals engaged in health and social sectors are faced with complex administrative, organizational, and programme implementation and evaluation issues. Unfortunately, there are few community-oriented, problem-focused and pragmatic training programmes that can provide them with the conceptual knowledge as well as practical skills and expertise to effectively address these complex issues.

The Continuing Education Programme (CEP) is a response by the Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS) of Aga Khan University (AKU) to this critical need of Pakistan and other countries in the region. The CEP (former Regional Training Programme) is being conducted regularly since 1994 and till December 2006 has trained 1582 national and international health and development professionals in 85 regular and tailor-made training courses within and outside Pakistan. Over the years, participants from a number of regional countries such as India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Iraq, Cambodia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Sudan, and Afghanistan have been increasing. There has also been an increase in enrollment from the, government agencies, and other NGOs working in Pakistan.

GOAL
The overall goal of the Continuing Education Programme is to further strengthen the professional expertise and problem-solving skills of the professionals belonging to different sectors of health so that they can provide more efficient and effective health and development programmes for their work places.

The CEP is particularly useful for mid-level health and development workers, managers, researchers and planners working at different levels in government, NGOs, and international agencies. It is designed to benefit the participants, their parent organizations, programmes and the target populations they serve.

PROGRAMME COMPONENTS
The Continuing Education Programme offers following regular/special training courses:

Course Title
Course Dates for Year 2007
 Deadline
Reproductive Health Research
(Course Director: Dr. Neelofar Sami)
(Registration form)		 April 09 – 27
 Mar 15
Geographical Information System in Public Health (Registration form)
(Course Coordinator: Mr. Albert B. Gill)		 March 26 - 30
 Feb 20
Health Systems Management and Research
(Course Director: Dr. Syed Muhammad Israr)
(Registration form)		 May 02 – 18
 March 15
Environmental and Occupational Health
(Course Director: Dr. Masood Kadir)
(Registration form)		 May 21 - 26
 April 20
Statistics, Data Management & Analysis and Computer Skills
(Course Direcotor: Ms. Shafquat Rozi)
(Registration form)		 June 01 – 28
 April 16
Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Surveillance
(Course Director: Dr. Imtiaz Jehan)
(Registration form)		 August 01 – 29
 May 15
Primary Health Care and Health System Development
(Course Director: Dr. Parvez Nayani)
(Registration form)		 August 15 – September 08
 June 25
Community-Based Social Development
(Course Director: Ms. Kausar S. Khan)
(Registration form) 		October 22 - November 14 Sep 15

All courses are offered at different times throughout the year. Qualified and experienced faculty of the CHS Department and other departments at AKU conduct these training courses. (Click for faculty list).

COURSES ON REQUEST

The programme also responds to individual organizational needs and offers tailor-made courses within and outside AKU for specific group of participants. Such courses included especially designed versions of Community Based Social Development (Self, Society, and Action for Change; Gender, Self, and Development); Community Based Qualitative Research; Introduction to Project Design, Planning, Data Management and Report Writing; Applied Nutrition; Social Mobilization Techniques, Clinical Epidemiology, Sustainable Capacity for Health Systems Management and Information-Based Decision Making, Demographic Principles, Team Building, Public Health Surveillance, etc.

ACCOMODATION FACILITY

Depending upon availability, accommodation can be arranged for interested participants at:

  1. On campus hostels (for female participants only).
  2. National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) hostel - approximately seven km distance from AKU.
  3. Rehaish Inn Guest House- approximately seven km distance from AKU.

For more details, please see the course registration form.

AKU APPLICANTS
AKU staff may send applications through their respective Departmental Head. Registration form can be obtained from the CHS (please see last page for the contact persons).