Evaluating and measuring impact in career development: extension workshop Presented by – Date – Just to identify strengths and areas to improve are no longer enough. An organisation needs to be self knowing and have a robust continuous improvement plan – a plan that is reflected in all areas of the organisation. Ofsted: September 2009 framework

Aim and objectives Aim: To develop a framework for measuring impact and continual improvement that meets the needs of your CLC scheme. Objectives By the end of the session learners will be able to: Relate evaluation and impact to your own context Identify areas of your scheme that can be measured to demonstrate impact Contribute to the development of an effective framework for evaluation and measuring impact that meets the needs of your CLC scheme

Impact of career development Work in pairs, preferably with someone you do not know well. Introduce yourselves: name, job role, experience in evaluating and measuring the impact of the work you do as a Community Learning Champion Agree between you the outcomes and impact that should result from delivering a consistent and high quality service to the people and communities you work with and support You have 5 minutes for this activity

Completing the career development audit Activity Individually go through the audit tool and decide what score you would allocate to your scheme in relation to each of these statements. In fours, compare your assessments, noting similarities and differences.

How can we improve? Capacity to Improve The ability of an organisation to continue improving standards and progress, based on what it has accomplished so far or to maintain exceptionally high standards. Activity Following from your audit, select one area that your scheme/organisation needs to improve and then identify a range of interventions that could be considered in order to make this improvement

Measuring impact The impact that effective CLC career development activity has will reflect in the outcomes for clients. For example in: Taking up learning (informal or formal) Skills development Increased wellbeing Improved confidence and self esteem Increased employability Achievement Progression Gaining accreditation Measuring impact is about setting clear measures in each of these areas and being able to track this to the effectiveness of the career development activity. Please remember that measures can be both quantitative and qualitative

Ways to measure impact There are many ways to measure impact and it’s important to chose methods that suit what you do, how you do it and your capacity/resources. Client forms: application, client data, equality monitoring, etc Evaluation forms Discussion groups Postal/ /telephone surveys Online surveys such as ‘Survey Monkey’ Focus groups Longitudinal surveys To be effective we need to select the right methods and talk to the right people; including clients, stakeholders, partners, staff and volunteers.

Measuring the impact of your scheme’s career development activities Activity In groups of four, chose one of the client outcomes that could be measured quantitatively. Select an appropriate way to measure this and develop a tool that could be used in your scheme. For example; a survey, questionnaire, terms of reference for a focus group, list of questions for a partner telephone survey or a new evaluation form, A member of each group will feedback at the end of the activity. What you chose and why; a brief outline of your ideas.

Summary What impact could effective career development activity have on clients? What did we identify as suitable methods for gathering the information we need within our schemes? Who do we need to talk to/ask to get the information we need? Thank you for attending, please complete an evaluation form