Making a difference: results of a pilot investigation into the impact of technical co-operation training on developing countries

This article reviews a recent innovation in the evaluation of training undertaken by the British Council on behalf of the Overseas Development Administration. It describes a pilot study carried out to assess the impact of training on personnel from a number of developing countries, six months after their return to work. The article explains briefly the context in which the exercise took place, and highlights its findings and implications for future work. First results, albeit from a limited sample, suggest positive benefits to the individual, the work group and their organization. Future analysis will in many cases be done overseas and will need to link more closely with overall project objectives to assess the impact of training. Evaluations will also need to take into account the increasing trend to supply training in-country or in a third country rather than the UK. They will also be able to check assumptions that the quality, cost and benefits to the project and host institutions are greater in these cases than for UK training.     

THE ROLE OF EXTERNAL INSPECTION IN THE PUBLIC SERVICES: THE CASE OF THE UK TRAINING MARKET

We consider two interpretations of the role of external inspection in the public services in the UK in the context of publicly funded, work‐based training programmes for young people. The first is that inspection provides substantive information to buyers concerning training quality, thereby improving efficiency in the ‘training market'. The second is that it provides procedurally oriented reassurance concerning service quality to government and the public, irrespective of substantive quality. Evidence is drawn from the inspection procedures and reports of the Adult Learning Inspectorate between 2001 and 2005. The inspectors rated training providers on various attributes, some clearly procedural, others potentially substantive. We find that while inspectors took both procedural and substantive dimensions of training into account in judging the quality of a provider's services, they attached considerably more weight to procedural than to substantive attributes. In particular, they undervalued the trainee completion rate, despite its potential association with the substantive quality of training and the priority the government attaches to raising it. These results are interpreted as evidence of limited validity in inspection findings, which do little to resolve information asymmetries in the UK training market.     

BUREAU SHUFFLING? THE REVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND

The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement of 1998 resulted in the return of devolved government to Northern Ireland and, with it, a decision by the Executive and Assembly to conduct a radical review of public administration. The review is now reaching its final stages and this paper considers the likely outcomes. It both argues that the parameters of the review will limit its impact and describes the reform proposals as either structural changes or administrative rationalization, both devoid of a wider modernizing approach to improving public services. In Northern Ireland, the on/off nature of devolution could result in ‘one of the major tasks for devolved government’ (according to the Northern Ireland Executive) being implemented by Direct Rule ministers.