Educ316 Assignment 3

Sheldon Fougere Assignment 3 EDUC 316

Overview

For Assignment 3 – Critique of an Evaluation Report, I chose to critique the Chaytor Consulting Services (2005) Matching Need & Response report, which I will refer to as the Report. I chose this particular report because it is for a program offered through the Nova Scotia Department of Education, from my home province and I previously worked for the Department in their Technical Services Section.

Program Synopsis

The Report provides an evaluation of the Workplace Education Initiative offered through the Nova Scotia Department of Education. Developed in 1989, it provides literacy education within an employers’ workplace. The intended participants of this program are employees that may struggle with reading and may be held back from progressing further in the workplace. The goal of the program is to provide customized education that includes information and examples from the participants’ workplace making the training relevant and interesting to the participants. The intended benefits are twofold. First, the participants gain literacy skills, increasing their skill set and employment opportunities. Secondly, the employers benefit by increasing the skill set within their workforce. This allows the employers an opportunity to promote from within the company where they may not have been able to previously.

Observations

This program appears to avoid some of the pitfalls described in chapter 12 of the textbook, where other not so mature programs may suffer. One example is a Type 2 problems where enrollment is low, there does not appear to be such a problem with this program. Another example is a Type 4 Problem where participants express satisfaction but there is no evidence that the program worked. There are examples where participants have been progressed to greater positions of responsibility in a company where they might not have otherwise because of a lack of skills.

This formal Report was...