How to assure, evaluate and improve the quality of a planning process

The main aim of the planning phase is to establish the vision, mission, values, policies, strategies, processes, objectives and key indicators for the whole transfer process. The inputs, outputs, resources and good practices also have to be identified for each process or at least for the key processes. Moreover, in order to determine the level of conformance, each input must have allocated quantitative targets which then have to be compared with the real results.

The WBL planning phase does not end with planning the transfer of the good WBL practice. It has to be reviewed and evaluated constantly during the entire phase and also at the end of it, according to the same rules specific to the EQARF methodology. At the same time, evaluation is directly connected to improvements during a planning process. The evaluation of a planning process is related to a successive process consisting of gathering data and then analyzing it. The resulting information can be used to determine whether the planning process is effectively carrying out the planned activities and if it is achieving the stated objectives and anticipated results.

The measure of success for the planning process would be based on the measurable goals and objectives established during the process planning phase. Measurable objectives or the measures of success should be established before implementation begins. They become the milestone for measuring progress or success.

There is a close interconnection between the evaluation and improvement stages during a planning process. During the evaluation, made both at the planning phase and at the end of it, we can draw some conclusions and analyze whether we can improve the plan before we start to implement it. This step can be considered to be a milestone in the entire WBL planning phase because it can reveal important aspects that had not been taken into consideration at the beginning of the process.

An example of all components of the EQARF methodology is shown in Table 8. Application of the EQARF to VET providers including those offering good WBL practices could be very effective. (Hohan, Quality Assurance in the Romanian CVET, CALISIS project, 2009, p. 62)

Table 8. Checklist for planning phase evaluation.

In planning the transfer process of good WBL practices we should consider the following components: inputs, the transfer channel, resources, perturbations, outputs and feedback measures. Checklist of the components of the planning process of WBL-TOI you find in section Checklist of components.