2021 Volume 36 Issue 3 Pages 123-133
Introduction
The need to develop human resources for global health is increasing. The objective of this study was to compare and identify the gaps between qualifications required for health-related international organizations, and actual qualifications of Japanese personnel who wish to work for these organizations.
Methods
We compiled the required qualifications of 2,530 vacancy posts publicized between April 1 2019 to March 31 2020 by 15 health-related international organizations automatically acquired by Human Resources Registration and Job Search System developed by Human Resource Strategy Center for Global Health. Then compared them with the qualifications of 528 registrants of the system as of October 2020.
Results
There were three major findings: Firstly, the need for Master’s degree got higher as the post grade got higher and 76.1％ of registrants held either Master’s degree, PhD, or Medical Degree (MD). However, 23.9％ of registrants did not have Master’s degrees. Secondly, job experience years of registrants by age groups were in accordance with general relations between grade and job experience years of those working for international organizations. However, only 56.8％ and 49.8％ respectively had job experiences overseas or in developing countries. Thirdly, 9.3％－51.4％of registrants opted for posts which were too low or too high for their qualifications.
Conclusions
Our study findings suggested three characteristics or gaps. To bridge these gaps and strengthen capacities of Japanese global health personnel, selection and achievement of Master’s degree in anticipation of one’s prospective career development, achievement of overseas job experiences in one’s 20s and 30s, and application for posts which best matches one’s qualifications are needed.
