Health Education and Training: HEAT

Academic Director: Lesley-Anne Long

Deputy Director: Dr Basiro Davey MBE

Consortium Partners: World Health Organisation, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, Amref Health Africa, Federal Ministry of Health (Ethiopia).

Focus Country: Ethiopia

Dates: 2011 - ongoing

Status: Teaching materials remain in use in TVET and Health Colleges in Ethiopia and are widely available globally as OERs.

HEAT is an accelerated and scalable Healthcare Education and Training programme for frontline healthcare workers, providing them with vital healthcare skills and the potential to save millions of lives.

HEAT was radically different to existing healthcare worker training programmes. Its content, written by African health experts in collaboration with the OU, is split into two parts – practical training and theoretical training. The practical training was delivered by HEAT implementation partners close to where the healthcare workers live, enabling them to stay living and working in their communities while learning, and this is possible because - like the TESSA programme - the HEAT theoretical materials are available in printed format as well as online, making them accessible to all, no matter how rural their location.

The programme was launched in Ethiopia in 2011 with £4m UNICEF funding and in close partnership with the Ethiopian Government, the World Health Organisation, and AMREF. HEAT’s content addressed priority health areas, including postnatal care, new-born and childhood illnesses and communicable diseases, and discussions are now underway to replicate the model and materials across sub-Saharan Africa, helping the region reach and train the 1 million additional health workers needed to reach its Millennium Development Goals. In 2012, about 1300 health extension workers were trained using HEAT modules in a pilot project across the country; since then, over 12,700 students have been upgraded using the HEAT materials.

HEAT's content, written by African health experts in collaboration with the OU, is split into two parts – practical training and theoretical training. The practical training was delivered by HEAT implementation partners close to where the healthcare workers live, enabling them to stay living and working in their communities while learning, and this is possible because - like the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme - the HEAT theoretical materials are available in printed format as well as online, making them accessible to all, no matter how rural their location.

Learn more about HEAT's work in Sub-Saharan Africa.