Twenty years of capacity building and partnership: A case study of a health promotion scholarship program

2.1 The scholarship program

The scholarship program (the Program) commenced in 1993 through a collaboration between AHPA (WA Branch) and Healthway,¹ which has invested more than 2 million dollars over this time. The Program is unique in its longevity. Initially, for university graduates, it expanded to include Aboriginal people interested in a career in health promotion in 2000. Four competitive scholarships are offered each year for recipients to conduct health promotion projects as part of a paid work placement (6 months full-time or equivalent part-time). Recipients develop and improve health promotion competencies under the supervision of an experienced health promotion practitioner who provides project management, health promotion mentoring and workplace navigation. Project activities and professional development are mapped to established health promotion core competency frameworks (initially those from AHPA and later the International Union for Health Promotion and Education). The annual budget (currently $185 000) includes funds for the recipients’ wages,¹ a small professional development budget, career mentoring and travel allowance (for rural or remote areas). With support from AHPA (WA Branch) and Healthway, a consultant project coordinator (approximately 0.2 FTE) is responsible for program promotion; management and mentoring of successful recipients; coordinating program evaluation; and monitoring reporting requirements of successful recipients.

Program strategies include formal recruitment through an application and interview process, opportunities for recipients to present at national conferences and events, mentoring by an experienced health promotion practitioner to develop and track career goals and further professional development opportunities as identified by the project coordinator. Project monitoring is conducted via phone or online surveys with recipients to determine the impact and value of the program in relation to continuation of employment in the health promotion sector, career opportunities and development of core competencies. Host agencies are surveyed post placement to identify agency benefits gained from the Program, appropriateness and “fit” of the recipient for agency, interest in future participation and suggestions for improvement.

2.2 Design and procedure

This descriptive case study was developed from data collected via a desktop review and online questionnaires distributed to past recipients and host agencies. Questionnaires collected demographic information, project locations, host organisation type and project classification (settings and strategies) and qualitative perspectives on the value of participating in the Program. Questionnaires were distributed electronically using a database of past participants and followed up once via email and phone. Ethics approval was obtained from Curtin University.

3.1 Demographics of participants and host organisations

One hundred successful scholarships have been awarded, including to 37 Aboriginal recipients (since 2000). Most recipients were female (n = 85; 85%), reflecting the estimated gender composition of the health promotion graduate profile and workforce. The 63 graduate scholarship recipients completed courses in health promotion, health science, public health or preventive health. Aboriginal recipients had a variety of backgrounds including Aboriginal Health Workers; university, TAFE and high school graduates; and community organisation volunteers. Most placements (n = 68; 68%) were completed in the Perth metropolitan region, however, 57% (n = 21) of the Aboriginal recipients completed placements in rural and regional areas. Placements involved a range of organisations (see Table 1).

3.2 Example program outputs

Placements have resulted in the development of sustained initiatives, for example the “Children's Environment & Health Local Government Report Card”,¹ innovative, acclaimed resources, for example “Gary Goanna Goes Healthy”¹ and programs, for example “Sharing Stories”,¹ published research, for example “OPAN”¹ and impacts on wider policy and practice, for example “WA Local Government Fleet Safety.”¹ Around 2-thirds (n = 68) of recipients employed at the time of the review were still working in the health sector.

3.3 Perceived value

Participant perspectives on the Program value suggest the program: (i) allowed recipients to put theory in to practice; (ii) built capacity in recipients and supervisors; and (iii) provided reciprocal benefits for agencies and recipients.

Putting theoretical concepts into practice, getting an “invaluable foot in the door” and working on a project from beginning to end were suggested as benefits. A recipient echoed this sentiment commenting, “Nothing was theoretical anymore - I had responsibility over a project and for that reason it pushed me to improve my competencies…I wanted my project to be successful.”

Mentoring, leadership development and increased confidence were also highlighted as positive outcomes with 1 recipient suggesting that the Program was “valuable for the successful applicants because it will hopefully give them confidence in their own abilities.” Another recipient described a safe to fail environment, “scholarships are important to people who are not confident with the skills that they already possess…I needed a safe stage to try out what I knew and find out what I didn't know.” It was suggested that opportunities for skill development also extended to the supervisors allowing “… those supervising the project to add to their mentoring and leadership skills.” A supervisor supported this noting, “these programs…are critically important to our emerging professionals. We build up so much experience and knowledge - it is a pleasure to share this with new professionals, who one day…will be the leaders of tomorrow. …The reverse mentoring I received…was a great outcome.”

Participants suggested mutual benefits. One recipient noted, “not only does it provide graduates opportunity to enter the workforce, but it adds to the capacity of health promotion organisations.” Agencies suggested that additional human resourcing and specific health promotion skills were key benefits, for example, “…the return is mutual. Organisations gain access to skills and expertise they may not have, or need but cannot afford, and graduates gain exposure to the world of work… I doubt [we] would have ever implemented a health promotion approach without taking on a scholarship… It ultimately grew our diversity and scope.”

3.4 Implementation challenges

Whilst ongoing interest has been shown in the Program and feedback received is generally positive, program implementation has not been without challenges. Matching wages to industry standards and ensuring cultural security for Aboriginal recipients for example have been flagged as issues over the program's history. An opportunity to further explore specific learnings from the Aboriginal component of the program would be a valuable addition to the literature in the future. For the graduate scholarships, which have achieved solid and consistent levels of participation, some of the key challenges have been to ensure that the scope of projects is realistic in a 6-month time frame, ensure adequate supervision and support recipients into other work on completion where the agency is unable to continue their employment. However, as the feedback from individuals and agencies has demonstrated, key to the value of the program has been the development of core competencies for health promotion and for the workplace more generally. The ability of new practitioners to demonstrate their capacity to meet health promotion competencies is valuable as the sector moves closer to professionalisation.