Training readiness of public health agencies: a framework for assessment.

The Healthy People 2010 Objectives and the Taskforce on Public Health Workforce Development both have recognized the important roles of state and local agencies in the education and training of their employees. This article describes an initial step in the development of a tool to assess agencies' training readiness using five factors derived from learning organization theory. These factors (resources, policies, learning culture, programs, and leadership) offer a useful framework for further development of a tool to assess training program readiness.