The overall task of the Working Group on Education (WGE) is to assess and enhance the competences of the public health workforce and to foster global dialogue. This work is in line with other efforts currently underway to assess and enhance expected competences of the public health workforce as defined by public health agencies and organizations as well as by academic training institutions. Today the situation is one in which concept and implementation are circular: what the professional public health competences are (those that are needed) depend upon what the health system demands that public health professionals do; but that depends upon the public health system needs, as dictated by what the public health system itself is supposed to do. In turn, academic and professional training programs in public health must determine what competences to include in their programs. The basic assumption regarding competences for public health professionals is that they are a required, integral element in assuring delivery and successful completion of public health tasks. Those tasks are derived from the essential public health functions (EPHFs), which reflect what is expected of a public health system. Good performance measurements of these functions would in turn enable definition of a well-performing public health system. As a starting point of WGE work, the current task has been to assess the adoption of public health system concepts, such as the EPHF model, at the national level in countries across the world. After completion of the assessment phase, it is within the WGE’s scope of activity to examine those models and to advocate for the adoption of the one best suited to become globally embraced and flexible enough to be adopted by different public health systems. Presentations: 1. The Public Health System and the Essential Public Health Functions Models a. An introduction to the concept and structure of public health systems at local level and national level - what is a public health system? b. The various models of describing what a public health system does 2. Accumulated experience in the application of models of essential public health functions a. The US experience b. The PAHO experience c. The European experience 3. The integration of essential public health functions and competence development a. Why is integration necessary b. How would the function model affect competence development c. What are the next steps? d. Monday workshop outcomes - outcomes from the WFPHA WGE workshop