Evaluation Training for Community Consultancy, with IEDE
Summary
TLDRThe UCL pilot program 'Evaluation Training for Community Consultancy' is a six-week course aimed at students across all levels, teaching them to become evaluation consultants. It partners with Kentown Community Center to assess social value, providing practical opportunities for students to apply their skills and make an impact. The center serves 25,000 people, emphasizing the importance of measuring social value beyond financial metrics. The program encourages networking and learning from both academia and community practice, offering students interdisciplinary insights and hands-on experience.
Takeaways
- 🎓 The pilot program is a six-week learning initiative for UCL students at all levels to become evaluation consultants.
- 📚 It includes lectures and activities focused on consulting skills, particularly for the voluntary sector.
- 🏢 Kentown Community Center has partnered with UCL to challenge students to assess social value.
- 🤔 The center serves a diverse population of about 25,000 people and seeks to understand its impact beyond financial measures.
- 🔍 The social value of the community center is crucial for demonstrating its importance and securing support.
- 👥 Guest speakers have been invited to share ideas and resources, fostering a two-way learning experience.
- 💼 The program offers networking opportunities for students with potential employers in the voluntary sector.
- 📈 It also allows organizations to learn from academia on how to assess and improve their community work.
- 🌟 Students gain hands-on experience, applying theoretical knowledge to real-world community challenges.
- 🧐 Interdisciplinary collaboration is highlighted as beneficial, with students from various backgrounds working together.
- 🎉 The presentations by students have been highly valued for their insight into community impact and potential for improvement.
Q & A
What is the purpose of the 'Evaluation Training for Community Consultancy' pilot program?
-The pilot program is a six-week learning initiative aimed at teaching students across UCL, from undergraduate to PhD level, how to become evaluation consultants, particularly focusing on working with voluntary sector organizations.
Which community center is the program collaborating with?
-The program is working in collaboration with Kentown Community Center.
What challenge has Kentown Community Center set for the students?
-The challenge set by Kentown Community Center is to assess the social value of the community center.
Why is it important for Kentown Community Center to measure its social value?
-Measuring social value is important to demonstrate the center's impact, justify its existence, and encourage support from the community and potential benefactors.
How does the program benefit students looking to apply their skills in real-world scenarios?
-The program offers students opportunities to put their skills into practice, make a difference, and gain hands-on experience by working on real challenges set by community organizations.
What is the population size that Kentown Community Center aims to serve?
-Kentown Community Center aims to serve a population of approximately 25,000 people.
How does the fast-paced environment at Kentown Community Center impact its operations?
-The fast-paced environment makes it difficult for the center to reflect on its operations and understand where it is going wrong or right, emphasizing the importance of social value assessment.
What kind of support are students looking for in terms of networking and career opportunities?
-Students are looking to network with professionals and organizations where they might potentially have placements or work in the future, gaining insights into the practical application of their academic learning.
What is the significance of the guest speakers and resource providers invited to share with the students?
-The guest speakers and resource providers are important for sharing ideas, signposting resources, and showing interest in the students' work, fostering a two-way learning experience between academia and community organizations.
How does the program address the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application?
-The program provides a platform for students to apply their theoretical knowledge in a practical setting, offering insights into how academic concepts can be utilized to benefit real community groups and organizations.
What was one of the key takeaways from the student presentations according to the speaker?
-The speaker was delighted by the value of the presentations, noting how well the students understood the population size, context, and capacity of the community center they were assessing.
Outlines
📚 UCL Evaluation Training Program
The script details a six-week learning program at UCL aimed at students from undergraduate to PhD levels, focusing on training them to become evaluation consultants. The program includes lectures and activities to equip students with the skills necessary to assess social value, particularly in the voluntary sector. The Kentown Community Center has set a challenge for the students to evaluate social value, providing a practical application for the students' theoretical knowledge. The center serves a population of approximately 25,000 people and seeks to understand its impact beyond financial measures. The script highlights the importance of social value in community centers and the need for measuring it to demonstrate the center's worth and garner support.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Evaluation
💡Consultancy
💡Community Center
💡Social Value
💡Voluntary Sector
💡Learning Program
💡Pilot Program
💡Undergraduate
💡PhD
💡Interdisciplinary
💡Placement
Highlights
UCL is running a 6-week pilot program called 'Evaluation Training for Community Consultancy' for students at all levels.
The program includes lectures and activities to teach students how to become evaluation consultants, particularly for the voluntary sector.
Students are working with Kentown Community Center to assess the social value of community centers.
Many students seek opportunities to apply their skills and make a difference, which this program aims to provide.
Kentown Community Center serves a fast-paced environment of about 25,000 people.
Financial impact alone does not fully explain what a community center does, so social value measurement is crucial.
Measuring social value helps justify the center's existence, gain support, and engage the local community.
Guests have been invited to share ideas and resources with students over the 6-week period.
The program facilitates two-way learning between students and organizations.
Students have the opportunity to network with potential employers and gain practical experience.
Organizations are interested in learning from academia on how to assess their work.
The speaker found the program valuable for applying theoretical knowledge in a practical context.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is beneficial, as seen in working with students from different academic backgrounds.
Working with Kentown Community Center provided insights into real-life community center work and potential for impact expansion.
Testimonies from the voluntary sector and consultancy groups highlighted the importance of community benefit.
The presentations demonstrated a deep understanding of population size, context, and capacity.
The 6-week program has equipped students with the potential to make significant contributions to the field.
Transcripts
[Music]
we're running a pilot called evaluation
training for community consultancy and
it's a six- week learning program which
is for any student across UCL at any
level from undergrad to PhD and we've
put on a learning program with lectures
and activities so the students can learn
about how to become a consultant
particularly an evaluation consultant
working with voluntary sector
organizations and we're working with
kentown Community Center and they set us
the challenge of assessing social value
and we've put on this course because
many students are looking for
opportunities to put their skills into
practice they're also looking to make a
difference challenge set by ksh toown is
a real challenge for them want to take
the proposals and pictures from the
students that is the output of the
course and put that into
practice so I run ksh town community
center which is a very fast-paced
environment deliberately so because
we're trying to serve a population of
about 25,000 people which is roughly
what we would consider kenish toown to
be and so because of that it's difficult
often for us to reflect on what we're
doing and to understand where we're
going wrong and where we're going right
a very easy way to understand the impact
of a community center is financially but
the financial impact of a community
center doesn't really explain or
illustrate what a community center
actually does but I run a building and
it's what happens in the building that
matters so the social value of ksh toown
Community Center is really important and
measuring that is really important
because it shows to people a why we
should be here B why people should
support us and see it shows the local
neighborhood that they too can be part
of a well-run uh conscious and kind
organization today we've invited people
that have come and shared their work
with us throughout the last six weeks or
given us ideas to think about or
signposted
resources and that's because they're
interested to see what the students
ideas are so it's learning in both
ways and I think that'd be really
valuable for the student to network to
meet people in organizations that they
might potentially end up having a
placement in or working for but it's
also the interest from the organizations
to learn from Academia about how do we
assess the work that we're doing so even
people at the Forefront doing this in
practice still have unanswered questions
for me I've Le a lot of theory but when
I actually got my first job
postgraduation I found that a lot of
what I learned there was a bit of a um
EAS in process to how I could actually
see how it actually applies this is a
nice PD for that I've been able to get a
bit of hands-on experience actually
taking what I've learned I can see the
potential it can actually have for
actual people actual Community groups
those that actually need that support to
work with someone coming from a
different um academic background for me
was it's always great um because on my
course we all come from similar academic
backgrounds so you don't necessarily get
that interdisciplinary approach that you
would do if you are working with someone
from another faculty working with ktcc
was a great opportunity to actually see
the real life work that community
centers do but also seeing how they
could widen their impact was really
important for me and also throughout the
program hearing about the testimonies
from people who work with different
voluntary sectors and consultancy groups
all trying to benefit their Community
was really essential for
me and one of the things that's really
delighted me about all the presentations
so far is how much value they have as
presentations you know you absolutely
nailed it the population size the
context the capacity everything that was
absolutely phenomenal and gemma's right
it's like six weeks I mean you guys
could do anything literally take over
the world
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