WHO Academy

The WHO Academy will be the World Health Organization’s state-of-the-art lifelong learning centre. Now under development with the support of France, the Academy will design and scale up learning for health impact, reaching millions of health workers and others all over the world. Using the latest in adult learning science and technologies, it will enable all learners to tailor their learning experiences to meet their own needs and award them digital credentials they can use to verify their competencies and advance their careers.  

The Academy will expand access to critical learning to health workers, managers, public health officials and policy makers – as well as the WHO’s own workforce – along with everyday people serving their families and communities. It will offer multilingual learning programmes in digital, in-person and blended formats, deploying the latest evidence-based health guidance, learning technologies and advancements in the science of adult learning. The Academy will also be one of the world’s leading centres of learning and simulation on health emergency preparedness and response. There are more than 234 million people working in the health and care workforce, 70 percent of whom are women. By investing in their competencies, the Academy will accelerate gender equity and the empowerment and leadership of women. 

Presently, no countries are on track to meet all the health-related targets of the SDGs.  A big part of the reason is it often takes a decade or more to implement new evidence-based health guidance into practice. Yet, medical science is doubling every three months and science and knowledge surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic was doubling every two weeks.

Fortunately, adult learning methods and technologies can vastly improve the speed, efficiency and scale with which learning is conveyed to people around the world.  Using these, the WHO Academy will accelerate the implementation of the latest norms, standards and evidence and thereby equip health workers and others to save lives and make their societies healthier.

WHO Academy programmes will be globally available via its online learning experience platform, with the vast majority of its learners accessing its learning programmes online. The Academy will have a campus network with its “hub” in the Gerland Biodistrict in Lyon, France, and “spokes” across the world. The Academy Lyon Hub will serve as the Academy’s main campus and will feature high-tech and people-centred spaces designed for collaborative learning, educational research and development of learning programmes.  It will also host a world-class health emergencies simulation centre that will use the latest technologies to enable health workers to sharpen their competencies amid realistic scenarios including mass casualties and disease outbreaks. 

The Academy currently has 40 programmes in design and development and is targeting the release of 100 major programmes by the end of 2023, with flagship programmes for COVID-19 vaccine equity, Universal Health Coverage, health emergencies and healthier lives.

The Academy will be open to everyone, no matter where they are located, via desktop and mobile devices and in low-bandwidth settings.  Once launched, learners will be able to participate in the Academy’s interactive learning programmes, update their learning needs and goals, explore personalised learning recommendations, and connect with other learners around the world, as well as contribute ideas, feedback and to co-designing Academy programmes to address critical unmet needs. 

The WHO Academy will leverage the latest learning technologies and innovations in the science of adult learning.  Digital innovations such as artificial intelligence, extended reality, serious educational games and blockchain have enabled learning experiences to become more immersive, engaging and effective at building competencies. Technology-supported experiential learning recognizes what learners already know and can tailor the experience to an individual learner’s needs – and assess the competencies they gain. It is now possible to deliver sophisticated learning programmes – with realistic simulations, personalization to user needs and intense collaboration among learners in various locations – to smartphones, mobile learning laboratories and other devices located almost anywhere in the world.  These are some of the technologies and innovations the Academy will advance and deploy.

WHO is mandated by its own constitution to be a learning organization and to convey the latest evidence, norms, standards and practice to the worldwide health community. The organization currently offers more than 1,400 digital and in-person courses, with over 6 million enrolments in OpenWHO.org .  The WHO Academy team includes experts in adult learning, behavioural insight, communications, quality and standards, research, governance, workforce development and performance and the latest learning technologies.  The Academy team brings in leading experts across a range of areas in health from WHO’s 14,000-person workforce, over 800 collaborating centres and hundreds of expert networks to provide a robust basis to transform lifelong learning for health impact.