Evaluation of the “PROBONO Teacher Training” Program in Tanzania
The PROBONO Teacher Training program aims at contributing to the improvement of education quality in Tanzania as the results of national final exams indicate a great need especially in the STEM subjects. This is done by delivering a 4-year in-service capacity training in form of workshop activities, providing equipment and infrastructure in their partner schools and fostering a network of education authorities and actors.
The final evaluation was based on the OECD-DAC critieria (relevance, effectiveness, impact, sustainability) in order to derive recommendations for shaping the program´s next phase.
The evaluation utilized different methods: next to interviews with the leadership of the project, project partner and head of schools; Focus Group Discussions gave voice to teachers, students and trainers. A comprehensive survey among all participating teachers and trainers enabled an in-depth quantitative analysis.
Evaluation of the “Guidelines to reward successful preventive measurements of members of the accident insurance UKS”
UKS, the ‘Unfallkasse des Saarlandes’ is the insurance Provider of the legal accident insurance for the public sector of the federal province Saarland. UKS aims at prevention of occupational diseases, work-related health hazards and accidents at work. An important aspect of its efforts in prevention is a premium System to reward members who successfully implemented work safety and health measurements in their operational Organisation and thus did not or only to a small extent rely on expenses by UKS. Beyond rewarding, the earmarked premium is an incentive to enhance the state of health and safety Standards in public sector Enterprises.
In the course of reviewing the premium System UKS engaged CEval to evaluate its guideline to reward successful preventive measurements. The aim of the consultancy Service was the Provision of an improved key-figures based formula to calculate disbursements in premium class 1, which contains the 52 towns and communities of the Saarland.
Study ’Good Work in law enforcement an analysis of working conditions, motivation and health in the Saarland law enforcement authorities’
In 2011, a structural reform was carried out in the law enforcement authorities in Saarland, which was accompanied by a closing of institutions. Against the background of hitherto changes, the study aims to analyze the effects on working conditions, motivation and health of the employees in Saarland law enforcement authorities. In addition, the study provided specific conclusions and recommendations derived from the collected data in order to optimize the institutional change and to further develop a sustainable institution-specific work and health management.
CEval followed a “mixed-methods” approach with regard to data collection. As a result, existing documents and data derived from a quantitative paper-pencil-survey, qualitative semi-structured interviews and group discussions had been analyzed in detail.
Constraints Faced by Graduates in the Labour Market of the Greater Region
The Unit for co-operation between Science and the Working World (KoWa) in cooperation with Arbeitskammer (Chamber of Labour) Saarland commissioned the research project Labour Market for Graduates in the Greater Region (Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the French region of Lorraine and Belgian Wallonia). The intended use of this study was to provide findings about graduates labour market opportunities in Saarland, as well as about favorable and constraining conditions for graduates who wish to enter the border-crossing or the Saarland labour market. Thanks to previous research, it was known that graduates face considerable difficulties when trying to gain access to the border-crossing labour market, despite a number of specialized placement services or study programs which both involve several universities in the Greater Region.
Yet, an encompassing, representative survey among graduates of higher education institutions in Saarland, focusing on motives and backgrounds of the decision if or if not to search for jobs in neighbouring foreign countries during their transition into employment, has not yet been conducted. Also, there was hardly any information about those graduates from Lorraine, Luxembourg and Wallonia who search for jobs in Saarland. This study aimed at providing the lacking data by conducting a graduate survey among all students who graduated from Saarland University during the last eight years. Via email and via postcards sent to their home addresses, graduates had been invited to participate in an online survey. Additional graduate surveys at different universities of the Greater Region were being planned.
Ex-post evaluation of the regional development program ”La Malacateca” in Guatemala
From October 1998 till September 2012, World Vision implemented a regional development program in the municipality of Malacatán in Guatemala. The program adressed four key areas: health, education, economic development and sponsorships.
Three years after the conclusion of the program, World Vision wants to conduct an ex-post evaluation to appraise the sustainability of ist effects. To this end, the Center for Evaluation works with a local Guatemalan consultancy firm (CONSULTA) on the implementation of a quantitative household survey (including a control group) and qualitative interviews with the target group and relevant key informants.
Advising IBQM on the evaluation of vocational qualification networks
The “Initiativstelle Berufliche Qualifizierung von Migrantinnen und Migranten” (IBQM) at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) was a project funded by the BMBF as part of the BQF program (Berufliche Qualifizierung für Zielgruppen mit besonderem Förderbedarf). In cooperation with the project sponsor, IBQM advised and supported applicants who initiated innovative pilot projects as part of the BQF program. These projects were intended to contribute to the further development of support services for disadvantaged young people for the very heterogeneous target group of young people with a migration background. One focus was on efforts to take into account the intercultural dimension of skills assessment and development for the target group in the field of in-company and school-based vocational training.
IBQM’s main task in improving the framework conditions for the vocational qualification of migrants was to initiate, advise and scientifically support local and regional cooperation networks for the vocational qualification of migrants (BQN). CEval advised IBQM on the development and implementation of the process-accompanying evaluation of the BQN. This essentially involved the following tasks: Support in the completion of the BQN evaluation concept of IBQM, input at the meetings of the BQN evaluation working group, support in the development of the criteria catalogs, presentation formats and indicators for the implementation of the stages of the process-accompanying evaluation agreed with the local evaluation officers of the BQN, technical advice on the implementation of the individual stages (local application of the criteria, informative value of the documentation and plausibility of the implementation).
