A health worker opening an online course needs more than a reliable internet connection to make the learning useful; the language, examples and instructions must also make sense in the setting where they care for patients. Marking International Translation Day, the WHO Academy has highlighted the expansion of its multilingual learning platform, placing language access at the centre of its work to make high-quality training available to health workers across different countries, workplaces and levels of digital access.
Learning opportunities now cover 19 languages
The Academy's platform offers 269 courses in English alongside 250 versions in other languages, including 73 in Spanish, 15 in Chinese, three in Hindi and one listed separately in Simplified Chinese. Learning opportunities are now available in 19 languages, with more languages under development, giving a wider range of health workers the chance to study in a language they use and understand in their professional lives. The figures describe English courses and additional language versions, so they should not be read as a count of separate course subjects.
For the Academy, this expansion is part of making professional learning more equitable, because access should not depend on a health worker's location, the resources of their workplace or the language spoken around them. A person working in a remote primary care setting deserves access to relevant learning just as someone in a large tertiary health facility does, and a broader language offer can help remove one of the barriers that makes those opportunities harder to reach.
Local knowledge makes translated courses useful
The Academy's approach extends beyond replacing words in one language with words in another, using localization to adapt learning materials to different cultural settings, professional realities and conditions of access. Each language version is adapted, given appropriate context, tested and validated so that learners receive content they can understand and use in their own working environment. This attention to context matters because a course can be linguistically accurate and still feel disconnected from the circumstances in which a health worker needs to apply it.
Limited connectivity, uneven access to digital services and differences in the devices and technologies available to learners are among the practical challenges this approach seeks to address. Making a course available in another language is only one part of making it accessible, and the Academy's localization process considers the conditions under which people actually study. The focus is on learning that remains relevant and usable across health systems with different resources, rather than assuming that every learner has the same equipment or access conditions.
AI supports speed, and people protect quality
Artificial intelligence is helping the Academy accelerate localization, increase production speed and expand the scale of its multilingual offer, with human expertise remaining essential to check accuracy, quality, cultural sensitivity and relevance. Expert review helps ensure that faster production delivers learning materials that fit the needs of health workers, connecting the opportunities offered by technology with the judgement needed to make educational content dependable and appropriate for different audiences.
The combination of translation, localization, digital innovation and expert review supports a learning offer that can reach more people without losing sight of their daily working conditions. Through its growing range of languages and the development of additional versions, the WHO Academy is supporting a future in which more health workers can learn in their own language, within their own context, and with materials designed to be useful where they provide care.
