Evaluation - Sail Training International's self-help toolkit

The development of a sail training self-assessment tool was overviewed together with a summary of previous research, experiential learning, youth development and outdoor education. The main thrust of previous research in these areas had focussed on outcomes of programmes or participant perspectives.

The session started with the project team of Dr Kris Von Wald and Dr Pete Allison asking participants to discuss in small groups what information they think will be most useful to enable them to improve their practices. As they reported out what they discussed, it became clear that there are some common types of information they need and that gathering the information and making sense of it for different audiences is a complex task. This short exercise illustrated that there is a common desire of operators to assess and monitor their organisation's performance for the purposes of planning, recruiting, funding and improvement.

The self-assessment tool which will be developed over the coming year, in collaboration with the steering group and with vessel operators, will involve piloting and refinement, and will result in a practical resource which operators can use to understand what they do and how they can improve it.

Speakers

Pete Allison, Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, UK, and Kristin von Wald, Director, Learning and Change, UK