Eldwick Research Associates
ERA
is an independent partnership formed in 1993, comprises two partners and
eight consultants. The ERA portfolio includes work on widening
participation, adult and community learning, vocational training, skill
needs, employment restructuring, management development, and labour
turnover and retention. Our clients have included the Department
for Education and Skills, the Department of Trade and Industry, Learning
and Skills Council, Campaign for Learning, Leeds City Council, CBWT and
CAPITB Trust (then NTO for the clothing sector) the European Commission,
the Inland Revenue, the European Trade Union Confederation, CEDEFOP, the
International Labour Office and the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development.
ERA is
included in the National LSC call off contract list for Provision of
Skills Research relating to Sectoral Analysis and delivering Equality
and Diversity Research support and has been contracted to provide
research support services to North Yorkshire LSC. The
organisation is also on various tender lists such as the tender list
for Leeds City Council Training Department. Members of the Core
team are on the LSDA Quality Consultants Register and the Edexcel
International Consultants Register.
We are
particularly motivated to undertake this evaluation because it
complements work that we have undertaken on behalf of the LSC, DfES,
DTI, SPT, other national training organisations, Leeds Learning
Partnership and West Yorkshire Leaning Consortium in relation to
equality and diversity, workforce development and skill needs; and
specifically the evaluation of the LdV New Steel Industry
Challenges Project, which feeds directly into this project,
completed last year and Campaign for Learning EQUAL Project
currently being evaluated by the ERA team. We are also included
in the Framework Agreement for Research Services into Equality and
Diversity for the National Learning and Skills Council.
We have
an excellent track record of prompt delivery to tight deadlines and
are committed to delivering quality and value for money. In
addition to the evaluations we have undertaken, we have a good
understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of various evaluation
techniques from our knowledge of the literature.
Broad approach to evaluation
ERA
uses
a highly structured and systematic approach to evaluation, and while
the methodology will be further elaborated following detailed
discussion with the Cardiff University School of Social Science
Research team, we would anticipate that the evaluation would
incorporate the principles of the evaluation framework employed by the
Department for Education and Skills (DfEE, 1998). We will
therefore start from the stated objectives and assess the net benefit
or ultimate impact of the project, the extent of overall change (directly
or indirectly attributable to the project), an analysis of causality
and an assessment of costs in relation to benefits. We are committed
to improving the quality of social partner led initiatives under the
Leonardo da Vinci Programme as well as in relation to the wider
European Employment Strategy and particularly equality and diversity.
Evaluation criteria
Evaluation
criteria are drawn from the Leonardo da Vinci Programme guidelines for
promoters, which in turn reflect the criteria applied by evaluators of
the project proposals. The
criteria can be broadly classified into process and impact issues and
attributed to either the interim/formative category or the final/summative
category (although there is inevitably a degree of overlap), resulting
in four domains for the evaluation.
Approximately equal time will be spent on the four domains over
the duration of the project, with the Interim Report mainly dealing
with interim/formative evaluation of both process and impact issues
and the Final Report concentrating more on the final/summative
evaluation of both process and impact issues.
Naturally, the bulk of the Interim evaluation will be on process
issues, while the bulk of the Final evaluation will address both
the process and impact issues, including products and any
mainstreaming effects that can be discerned.
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evaluation will entail the following activities:
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· Initial
audit of project objectives, partnership and procedures against the
Leonardo evaluation criteria used for project proposals by the
Commission;
· Examination
of documentation, including the project proposal, minutes of
meetings, project procedure guidelines, financial reporting
instruments and
progress reports;
· Regular
contact with project partners and four monthly meetings with the
Cardiff project team and or the project coordinator;
· Participation
in key project meetings, including the three two day project
partnership meetings to be held in Brussels;
· Face-to-face,
and/or telephone interviews, focus group discussion,
postal/ electronic Questionnaires with all members of the partnership,
partnership
sub groups, Cardiff project management and research team, industry
stakeholders, employers and learners participating in the project.
· Feedback
to the project coordinator through 4 monthly meetings, as well
as formal reporting through Interim Report (30 April 2006) and Final
Report (31October 2007).
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We
look forward to working with all the partners involved in the project
and if there are any issues you wish to raise during the Evaluation
please do not hesitate to contact us.