Organisations continue to invest heavily in training however it remains the case that many do not collect the information required to determine the usefulness and impact of their training programmes. Techniques remain unevaluated, transfer remains unmeasured and return on investment is considered too difficult to establish. Organisations often simply rely on initial delegate reactions as the only means of evaluation. And research shows that most still don’t make the effort to collect information concerning performance changes on the job or information linking the outcomes of training interventions to key business metrics. This is surprising considering the drive for efficiencies in today’s highly competitive, technical and global business environment.

How often are the following training evaluation methods used in your company?

Evaluation form completed by delegates at end of course 80%
Evaluation by line manager, peers or reports 12%
Evaluation follow-up questionnaire completed by delegates after six months 4%
Evaluation using pre and post questionnaires 2%
Evaluation of business data records 2%

Here at Eddistone we take a comprehensive approach to training evaluation

We want to make it easy to demonstrate that our training interventions develop competence, deliver value for money and a return on investment. To do this, we first complete an initial evaluation of delegate satisfaction and further information regarding the efficacy of the course using an electronic survey that includes both quantitative and qualitative elements. This data is carefully analysed and is fed into our quality system and used to inform development.

We also have unique emergency and crisis management competency frameworks that allow us to map the training needs of a team to identified competencies. We use these to conduct an objective review of the training and how successfully delegates transfer the learning. We also gather follow up data, again using quantitative and qualitative methods, and evaluate the training in terms of its efficacy in shaping long-lasting individual, team and organisational emergency response capability.

Taking this approach to training evaluation leads to recommendations for interventions to improve training transfer and therefore value for money and return on investment. For example we often make recommendations around what could be done to further support delegates to apply their learning.

What makes the difference?

Eddistone Consulting has drawn together a team of specialists who have extensive collective experience, coming from industry, the emergency response services, the multi-agency response community, health & safety and education backgrounds, to develop and deliver a competency-based training and exercise framework with identified performance deliverables to measure effectiveness and assure competence.

We use a proven systematic approach that explores how to respond. We have core methodologies for each response level of Emergency, Incident and Crisis (Operational, Tactical and Strategic) management. The credibility and reality of our exercises, experienced in a safe environment where real learning takes place, is always valued by our customers.