Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that 92 percent of employers who responded to a survey on climate change and public health reported need for public health professionals with training in climate change will very likely increase in the next 5 to 10 years.
Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that 92 percent of employers who responded to a survey on climate change and public health reported need for public health professionals with training in climate change will very likely increase in the next 5 to 10 years. While graduates of public health programs who focus on climate change are in demand in the current job market as well, these positions appear to be just a small proportion of the total number of jobs available in the field of public health. The findings are published online in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
“It is clear from our analysis that current employers value a host of skills and competencies such as knowledge of climate mitigation, health equity and climate justice, pollution-health consequences and causes, risk assessment, and policy analysis, among others,” said Heather Krasna, assistant dean and director, Career Services at Columbia Mailman School. “At the same time, we recognize that predicting future workforce needs with historical data or surveys does not give a complete picture of the disruptive reality created by climate change. We cannot model the emerging future from prior trends only, but also must adopt new paradigms of education.”
The researchers analyzed 16 years’ worth of public health job postings for their projections of the skills needed for this future workforce using keyword searches, and survey responses from prospective employers of public health graduates focusing on climate change. In addition to searching keywords or a combination of terms on Indeed.com and LinkedIn, the authors were provided access to 32,093 job postings on the free job board managed by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). The researchers found a statistically significant increase in the number of jobs in the ASPPH job board which mentioned climate change or global warming over the last 16 years.
Read more at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
