| Achong Tanjong |
“THESE days, focusing on programme evaluation to improve transparency and accountability of public spending is becoming more of a necessity. The practice of more precise evaluation is more demanded by stakeholders. Therefore conducting an impact study is one of the ways to ensure a more specific evaluation. In this kind of study, the focus is more on the impact on the clientele than on the programme itself.”
This was highlighted by the Acting Centre Director of SEAMEO Voctech, Hajah Noorzainab binti Haji Abdullah, in her remarks at the opening ceremony of the two-week training programme titled ‘Conducting an Impact Study to Enhance the Effectiveness of Education Interventions’, which began yesterday at the SEAMEO Voctech Regional Centre in Gadong.
She said the training is timely as it is being conducted during a period of financial difficulties. When resources are limited, there is a need to strategically select programmes that offer higher impact and show stakeholders that studies have been conducted to support the decisions from pervious and current interventions.
The tradition of conducting an impact study should be embedded in routine activities, regardless of limited resources to make people aware of the potential impacts and to be conscious of their decisions and actions.
The training programme is very relevant for those involved in projects and interventions that have a high probability to be replicated in other programmes. There are many interventions happening in the area of technical and vocation education, and training as well as in general education. There are still plenty of such projects that are not properly assessed and evaluated, especially with regard to assessing their impacts to the clientele, she added.
The Acting Centre Director continued that at the regional level under the Asean Secretariat “…we are now entering an Asean Economic Community in which labour mobility is one of the strategies. Mutual Recognition Arrangements, Mutual Recognition of Skills, Asean Qualification Reference Framework, Regional Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Standards, Regional Curriculum and Regional TVET Personal Standards are some of the tools that are expected to enhance the quality of TVET systems and the graduates as well as to facilitate collaborations among TVET institutions in the form of students and staff exchange, resource sharing, scholarships, research collaborations and many others”.
Dr Paryono, Deputy Director for Professional Affairs and Research Manager of SEAMEO Voctech delivering a briefing to participants at the training programme. – PHOTOS: ACHONG TANJONG
Participants during the training programme.
She added that the training has been planned to raise awareness and to equip participants with the skills necessary to carry out an impact study. She hoped that participants can partake in the local and national impact studies after completion of their training.
The two-week regional training programme is one of five programmes that SEAMEO Voctech is offering annually. The centre also offers in-country training programmes dedicated for individual SEAMEO member countries and also Customised Training Programmes for providing more flexibility. These training programmes show the organisation’s commitment to continuously assist the member countries in addressing current issues of capacity building programmes.
She hoped that participants will gain knowledge and skills from the training.
Some 28 participants from the 11 SEAMEO member countries – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam – are attending the programme.
The course addresses various topics including the justification for conducting impact studies, its common processes, various techniques in conducting an impact study and writing an impact study proposal and report. At the end of the course, participants will produce a brief group impact study report and an action plan that will be implemented after the completion of the training programmes.
Present at the opening ceremony yesterday was Dr Paryono, Deputy Director for Professional Affairs and Research Manager of SEAMEO Voctech, who is also the Course Coordinator and Resource Person for the training programme.
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