Using health promotion competencies for curriculum development in higher education

Health promotion core competencies are used for a variety of reasons. Recently there have been moves to gain international consensus regarding core competencies within health promotion. One of the main reasons put forward for having core competencies is to guide curriculum development within higher education institutions. This article outlines the endeavours of one institution to develop undergraduate and postgraduate curricula around the Australian core competencies for health promotion practitioners. It argues that until core competencies have been agreed upon internationally, basing curricula on these carries a risk associated with change. However, delaying curricula until such risks are ameliorated decreases opportunities to deliver dynamic and current health promotion education within higher institutions.