INTRODUCTION:
Public health education must respond to evolving workforce capability needs while remaining accessible to practitioners balancing employment and professional development. In Aotearoa New Zealand, a significant proportion of the frontline health workforce delivers essential services without formal tertiary public health education, limiting opportunities to develop foundational understanding of the rationale underpinning practice. These micro-credentials respond directly to priorities identified in the National Public Health Service Capabilities Framework (Te Whatu Ora, 2024), ensuring alignment with nationally recognised capability standards. Traditional undergraduate pathways often remain inaccessible to full-time workers due to time, cost, and study-load constraints. Although micro-credentials offer flexibility, their role within formal public health education pathways remains under-examined.

METHODS:
A curriculum innovation case study was undertaken. Two 100-level courses, Introduction to Public Health and Social Determinants of Health, were redesigned into six credit-bearing micro-credentials. Curriculum mapping aligned content with the National Public Health Service Capabilities Framework. The micro-credentials were designed as stackable pathways, enabling learners to accumulate credit toward compulsory undergraduate courses within health-related degree programmes. Enrolment patterns, completion data, informal learner feedback, and consultation with national public health workforce leaders informed iterative design and implementation.

RESULTS:
The micro-credentials provide modular, practice-relevant learning that can be completed alongside full-time employment. Early enrolments indicate demand from learners seeking flexible access to foundational public health education. Learner feedback highlights the value of extended completion timeframes, relevance to practice, and improved understanding of public health concepts underpinning daily work. Stakeholder endorsement reinforced the credibility and relevance of micro-credentials as a timely response supporting professional development and workforce capability building.

CONCLUSIONS:
This study demonstrates how micro-credentials can function as a complementary pathway within public health education systems, supporting workforce capability development without displacing traditional degrees. By strengthening access to foundational knowledge of health inequities, micro-credentials offer a pragmatic response to Pae Ora priorities.