The evaluation of training programs

Abstract

The evaluation of a training policy measure in the field of vocational training and the promotion of employability, faces problems which arise either from the complexity of the challenges to which this measure must respond, or from the plurality and diversity of stakeholders in the relationship system created to implement the policy. The choice of an evaluation model must be strongly influenced by the negotiation which brings into dialogue the evaluation concepts of the evaluators and the direction of the request of the sponsors. In this sense, the request, to a university team, to carry out an external evaluation of a professional training, to produce suggestions and recommendations allowing the improvement of the quality and the effectiveness of the training, especially in what concerns its territorial integration and employability, has made it possible to develop a model known as "institutional assessment". In this communication we propose to discuss some characteristic features of this model, in particular the emphasis on the negotiation process, the holistic and systemic approach and the multireferentiality of the evaluation. It is the articulation between these distinctive features that characterizes institutional evaluation as an essentially communicational process, based on a democratic relationship between evaluators / evaluated, allowing the expression of subjectivities, but also the joint production of meaning for training. . This evaluation model is not defined as an exercise in monitoring the training policy measure, but as a contribution to discuss the meaning of "quality" and "effectiveness" in the training process with consequences on the regulation of actions.