Start with an evaluation question
Ask what decision the evaluation needs to support. You might want to know whether new supervisors can complete a handover, whether internal trainers can brief an activity, or whether staff can review an AI-generated draft against its source. The answer determines what you should observe.
Connect that question to the original training need. If the initial problem was unclear, a long post-course survey will not make the intended outcome clearer. Agree the work task, the standard and who will review it before participants attend.
Use several kinds of evidence for different questions
| Evidence | What it can help you understand | Its limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Participant feedback | Whether the examples, pace and practice felt relevant. | Satisfaction alone does not demonstrate a skill. |
| A practice task | What the participant can demonstrate under workshop conditions. | The work setting may have different pressures and support. |
| A later work sample | Whether the behaviour appears in an appropriate workplace task. | A small sample may not represent every situation. |
| A business measure | Whether an operational result changed over the review period. | Other changes can affect the same result. |
Record a fair starting point
Use a small, suitable task or work sample before training. Apply the same observation criteria to a comparable task afterwards. Keep the criteria specific enough that two reviewers can discuss what they saw, such as “the update states an owner and deadline,” rather than an undefined rating of “professionalism.”
Choose examples that participants are permitted to share. Keep only the information needed for the learning review, and agree who will see it. The purpose is to guide learning and support an appropriate business decision, not to collect unnecessary personal information.
A simple fictional evaluation plan
Goal: Supervisors prepare clearer shift handovers.
Before: Review a small sample for status, next action, owner and deadline.
During: Participants rewrite a fictional handover and receive feedback using the same checklist.
After: A manager reviews comparable work after participants have had an opportunity to practise, discusses missing information and agrees one further adjustment.
Record what else changed during the period. A new handover template or staffing change may affect the results as well as the training. Report observations and limits together; do not turn a small improvement into a claim that the workshop alone caused a business-wide result.
Use the review to decide the next action
Ask what helped people apply the skill and what still made it difficult. Participants may need another practice opportunity, manager feedback, a clearer process or better access to information. Decide who owns the next step and when the team will review it.
Download the training evaluation plan (.txt). Pair it with the facilitation checklist when planning an internal workshop, or the communication exercises when practising handovers and feedback.
Share the desired workplace result when requesting in-house training. Compare the published outline and practice opportunities before selecting a programme; an attendance certificate and a positive survey answer different questions from demonstrated workplace performance.