Training for change
IIEP systematically evaluates the outcomes of its training offers in all three offices using the four-level Kirkpatrick model. The model assesses aspects ranging from immediate results and trainee satisfaction through to impact on the job and positive change at the organizational level. The Institute is also harmonizing evaluation methodologies across its offer, and has also piloted outcome harvesting to explore long-term effects and identify strengths and weaknesses in course design.
In 2020, IIEP also conducted an Outcome Review of its flagship Advanced Training Programme in educational planning and management. Known as the ATP, this programme has trained over 5,000 planners in its 50-year existence. Overall, 91 alumni and supervisors from 44 countries participated in the review. Following this investigation, the ATP has responded to the challenges of COVID-19 and is now fully accessible online. The training is now also available to a larger range of education professionals working with international and national agencies and development partners.
98% of alumni rated the APT as fully relevant to their work today
87% have shared ATP resources and knowledge with colleagues
Supervisors report that education sector plan quality has improved
ATP alumni cited technical skills such as education sector diagnosis, simulation models, data analysis, and plan preparation and implementation as being the most useful.
Evaluating technical cooperation outcomes
Results are an important aspect of educational planning: how does a plan improve learning outcomes? How does it address disparities? Results are also important for IIEP: they reveal how and where the Institute’s work develops the capacities of education ministries and their planning departments to better plan and manage education systems. That is why IIEP is using outcome harvesting as a way of unearthing the results of IIEP’s capacity development work. In 2021, IIEP published its first findings from Guinea and Jordan, with results from Haiti forthcoming. Notable effects included enhanced ministry leadership in Jordan during the COVID- 19 pandemic and increased national funding for education in Guinea.
The way that the IIEP-UNESCO team worked with us in the Ministry was new to us. A big team from the Ministry was involved, around 50 people worked together. As a result, staff from all directorates now stand for and defend the plan.”
Responding to the needs of Latin America
Throughout 2020-21, IIEP implemented an assessment to identify the educational planning and management needs and interests of the ministries of education of Latin America, to determine ways in which IIEP’s regional offer could further respond to these necessities. The assessment was based on two instruments. First, an online survey widely distributed across Latin American ministries of education –at central and decentralized levels– and among other key education stakeholders, addressed the professional needs of the respondents. More than 2,800 people responded, including 344 ministry representatives. Second, a series of semi-structured interviews with designated government officials sought to better understand the institutional needs and types of support that IIEP can provide. Nine interviews were conducted with ministry representatives at the central level, and four interviews with officials at the decentralized level. In 2021, the results of the needs assessment were used to inform strategic planning for IIEP’s training, technical cooperation, research and development, and knowledge sharing initiatives in Latin America, to ensure that they are truly responsive to the existing needs of its beneficiaries.
344 survey responses on the professional needs of ministry officials
13 in-depth interviews on institutional needs of ministries
Exploring the impact of research
IIEP regularly uses eternal evaluations to assess the impact of its work. In 2020, this included an in-depth exploration of the effects of IIEP’s research activities on the education sector of partner countries. This included an examination of the relevance and influence of its research, appraising the extent to which its findings are being used as evidence in planning processes, and outlining how IIEP’s research and knowledge production is contributing to knowledge generation, enlightenment, and learning among its key constituencies. Overall, the evaluation found that projects have been very successful in achieving expected outputs and outcomes, and that a range of channels were used to disseminate findings. Going forward, the evaluation recommended strengthening policy uptake, and building further upon synergies between training and technical cooperation, and across IIEP’s offices.
There is ample evidence regarding the projects’ ability to ensure that their results, and the potential policy implications, reached the eyes and ears of the key policy-makers and educational planners.”