Value for Investment Training
VfI training workshops can be provided online or face-to-face and can be customised to fit your needs. Workshops can be scheduled on request and are offered periodically through evaluation associations. See below for details.
One-day interactive training workshop
This workshop can either be delivered in a full-day or two half-days, with a mix of short presentations, group discussion, exercises and examples. Topics include:
- What is value for money? Why is it important?
- Evaluative questions about good resource use
- Introduction to the Value for Investment approach, including a step-by-step process for developing and using rubrics in evaluation
- VfI criteria, standards and rubrics
- Co-developing context-specific VfI rubrics with stakeholders
- Identifying evidence needs and selecting an appropriate mix of methods
- Incorporating economic methods of evaluation (such as cost-benefit analysis) within a broader evaluation framework
- Making sense of mixed methods evidence with stakeholders and rubrics
- Reporting findings that get straight to the point and answer key evaluation questions, supported by evidence and explicit reasoning
- Reflection, recap & take-homes.
Participants receive optional pre-workshop reading and a post-workshop take-home pack including a copy of the slides and links to online resources.
Half-day training workshop
There is increasing demand for this workshop which places a spotlight on evaluation rubrics as a powerful tool for synthesising criteria, standards and evidence to make warranted judgements about resource use. Topics include:
- What is VfM? Why is it important?
- What are rubrics and why use them?
- A step-by-step process for developing and using rubrics in evaluation
- Co-developing context-specific VfI rubrics with stakeholders
- Making sense of mixed methods evidence with stakeholders and rubrics.
Customised workshops
VfI training is often tailored to meet the specific needs of different groups, with examples and exercises relevant to the sectors and settings of the organisations involved.
In addition to the standard topics covered above, extension topics can be added (with extra workshop time) including deeper dives into:
- Rubric challenges, tips and tricks
- Hidden benefits of using rubrics – such as fostering stakeholder engagement, supporting stakeholder acceptance and use of evaluation findings, efficient evaluation management, streamlined reporting – and practical skills associated with these
- Value propositions – what are they, why use them, how to use a value proposition to build a bridge from a theory of change to a set of VfI criteria
- Key types and sources of evidence for VfI evaluations including economy, efficiency and cost-effectiveness indicators, their strengths and limitations, and broader qualitative and quantitative evidence options
- Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems; evaluation; economic evaluation; and VfI: designing a coordinated and integrated approach
- Deriving recommendations and identifying opportunities to create more value from the resources invested
- Differences between evaluation and research; different logics underpinning evaluative ‘how good’ claims versus causal claims and descriptive analysis
- Core theory underpinning evaluative reasoning and the general logic of evaluation
- Confronting values in evaluation (and research); the impossibility of being ‘values-free’ and the importance of being values-explicit
- Alternatives to rubrics and their relative strengths; combining multiple approaches to evaluative reasoning
- The connection between evaluative reasoning and participatory evaluation; power-sharing and stakeholder voice in developing and using rubrics
- Using the VfI system to support evaluative culture change, such as ‘thinking beyond measurement’ to the inclusion of qualitative and mixed methods, ‘thinking beyond methods’ to evaluative reasoning and evaluative thinking, and ‘thinking beyond proving’ to reflection, learning and improvement
- Common areas of misunderstanding/pushback and responses to common questions, such as: Isn’t it all just subjective? Why not just do a cost-benefit analysis? How do you involve stakeholders without compromising independence?
- Bespoke topics as required.
Note that these workshops do not provide detailed instruction in the design and implementation of economic evaluations (e.g. cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis) because there are many other courses that focus on economic methods of evaluation, which we are not seeking to duplicate. The workshops can include a brief overview of economic methods, focusing on when and how to include them in a VfM assessment.
