Short Abstract

The Evaluation Task Force will describe the design, vision and implementation of their Evaluation Academy train the trainer course which is upskilling government analysts and providing an effective and sustainable approach to building capability.

Description

Increasing the quality of evaluation across the public sector will drive better informed decisions and improve the delivery of government priorities while maximising value for money. But this requires a widespread cultural transformation in how evaluation evidence is valued, generated and used. The Evaluation Task Force’s (ETF) flagship capability programme, The Evaluation Academy, is helping to foster this change across the UK Civil Service.

The Evaluation Academy provides foundational evaluation training to upskill analysts ('Evaluation Champions’) across government departments in key evaluation methodologies and evaluation management techniques. The Academy uses a train-the-trainer model, aiming to produce a critical mass of skilled evaluation trainers across government, providing a sustainable and cost effective solution to the building evaluation capability. To date, the Academy has upskilled over 160 analysts as ‘Evaluation Champions’ who have gone on to deliver evaluation training to over 2400 analysts across their own organisations.

By investing in existing talent and fostering a network of motivated evaluators across government, the Academy is broadening and deepening the skill set of analysts. The Academy also instills a sense of professional pride in becoming an accredited Academy trainer and contributing to the improvement of the organisation beyond their immediate role.

This presentation will discuss the Academy’s vision and design, as well as present evidence from a recently published process and impact evaluation of the Academy. The ETF will also talk about its vision for evaluation capability across the public sector in relation to its latest strategy.