Moving from Blockbuster to Netflix Means African Solutions to Strengthening the African Health Workforce
An analogy illustrating workforce development strategies utilizing modern technology
Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin' …
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin' …
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
Songwriter: Bob Dylan
The Times They Are A-Changin' (Witmark Demo - 1963) lyrics © Audiam, Inc
Written in 1963, the lyrics of this iconic, prophetic song ring as true today, as when composed.
To begin, public health opposes neocolonialism and brain drain (at least professionals give voice to that idea in talks and conferences).
Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
Why should an African student have to pay more than $100,000 for two-year’s tuition (plus living and travel expenses, and the disruption to his/her family life and position) to physically move to Atlanta for public health training?
Why do we build castles instead of competency?
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
Through the design and development of an online, multi-communication methods, e-learning architecture and an advanced learning management system – based on Emory University Rollins School of Public Health’s successful 2019 launch of the new Africa CDC Institute for Workforce Development (IWD)
A new public health order (Nkengasong, 2017) is now establishing a world-class, educational infrastructure and platform to deliver the highest quality, competency-based, pre-service training and credentialing of the clinical and public health workforce.
Designed and developed using the best practices in pedagogy (online, face-to-face, or both) and the principle of African Solutions to Strengthening the African Health Workforce the Africa CDC IWD offers courses that are determined, approved, and taught by Africans geared toward the current and anticipated clinical and public health needs of Africa.
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
What does it mean when I write we need to move from Blockbuster to Netflix?
The metaphor is a cautionary tale that failure to adapt to change dooms current players to obsolescence.
When was the last time you drove to a Blockbuster store to rent a movie? I suggest that educational institutions that don’t meet the needs of learners “where they are” by offering sophisticated, pedagogically sound, alternatives to face-to-face teaching through thoughtfully conceived and operationally excellent online e-Learning doom themselves to failure.
Additionally, Africa is a rising giant in this new world order. African intellectuals, academics, and professionals should embrace and rightly live out their destiny, authority, and responsibility in this new public health order.
Editor’s Note: In 2000, video rental store giant Blockbuster rejected a $50 million partnership proposal by the owner of an upstart rent-by-mail video company. At the time Blockbuster had thousands of physical stores and employed tens of thousands of people around the world. Today Blockbuster has three employees and just one store. The rent-by-mail video company whose proposal it rejected, Netflix, is today a $120 billion global media company.
View a video of Scott J.N. McNabb's full lecture on African workforce
This article was published in IANPHI Insider #4 (November 2019).