APHL is working with FDA's
Office of Training Education and Development and a team of subject matter experts (SMEs) to build a
competency-based curriculum framework (see image right) for human and animal food laboratory professionals. The goal of the framework is a competent laboratory workforce doing comparable work as part of an
Integrated Food Safety System. The curriculum framework is a career-spanning, visual schematic of the human and animal food laboratory profession. It is being developed in tandem with another FDA curriculum development project for regulatory program professionals, the
National Curriculum Standard.
Work Group
The Laboratory Curriculum Framework Work Group consists of SMEs from various associations, state and local public health and agricultural laboratories, and federal agencies. The work continues the partnership between APHL,
AFDO and
AAFCO as the associations share resources and gather subject matter experts from their memberships.
Framework Levels
The framework spans five professional levels (entry, mid, expert, supervisor/manager and senior administration), and depicts the content areas in which laboratory professionals must possess competencies (i.e., knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors and attributes) in order to successfully perform their job functions. Content areas are either core (applying to all laboratory professionals) or program-specific, applying to laboratory professionals specializing in either chemistry (shaded in purple), microbiology (shaded in green) or special testing (shaded in pink).
The curriculum framework is being used for:
- Training development (courses and other learning events)
- Cataloging existing training
- Competency assessment
Framework Development Workshops
The work group meets two to three times per year at development workshops facilitated by the
International Food Protection Training Institute to continue competency development. The SMEs craft competency statements that will illustrate knowledge and understanding of a particular content area on the framework. Future work will consist of designing training courses based on a content area's competencies.
Training Available
Competency-based training courses are currently in development to complement the curriculum framework. These courses can be found on APHL's Training Portal.
Competency Documents
The Laboratory Curriculum Framework Work Group has created the following documents to serve as blueprints for framework development. The framework content areas and competency statements are regularly reviewed and updated (as needed) to remain current. The documents below are subject to change and will be updated with the most current version.
Entry Level Competency Statements
Mid Level Competency Statements