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Workshop evaluation outcomes

Groupwork Solutions conducts ongoing evaluation of each workshop we facilitate. At the completion of each workshop participants are given the opportunity to anonymously provide feedback on a variety of quality benchmarks including the workshops’ pitch, facilitators’ attitudes and knowledge, the way the workshop was run, topics that were most/least important, and the expected impact of the workshop on the participants’ work. Understanding the learning experiences of participants in Groupwork Solutions workshops is pivotal to our mission of providing the gold-standard of group work training in Australia.

We believe in the transparent reporting of evaluation data. There are few training organisations that publicly display their workshop feedback summaries. Groupwork Solutions recognises this as an important standard and encourages all other training organisations to adopt the same practice. Below you can find a global summary of our workshop outcomes for courses run between 2009 and 2018, and a summary of 3-month post-workshop feedback results. We hope this data will be useful in registering in the best Groupwork Solutions workshop for your personal and professional needs.

Meeting and exceeding expectations

At Groupwork Solutions we aim to provide our clients with training that not only meets their expectations, but also expands their potential to facilitate creative and transformative groups. Between 2009 and 2018, 84% of participants thought the training totally met their expectations of the course. Some participants of Peter Slattery’s Group work and young people workshop in Blacktown, 2018 said “It delivered way more” and “I realised there is so much more to learn”. Sometimes our feedback is that the workshop does not simply meet, but exceeds, expectations. In the words of a participant of David Cherry’s Managing Vicarious Trauma Course in Canberra 2018, “[It met my expectations] partly, not because it was negative, but because it was different (in a good way) to what I expected”. We hear our clients’ feedback and in 2019 we will be reviewing our workshop descriptions to ensure participants have a clear idea of what the workshop will be addressing and how it relates to their work.

Meeting participants where they are at

We are proud that we work with a bunch of skilled facilitators that are able to adapt content to a wide variety of contexts and participants.During the time that Groupwork Solutions has offered training, 91% of participants reported that the workshop was pitched at the right level. A participant of David Cherry’s The Occasional Counsellor workshop in Surry Hills 2016 reported ‘all of the course gave me insight and resources both personally and professionally. David was very clear and tracked our understanding constantly. There was enough content, and not too much’. Our workshops aim to help practitioners deepen their use of skills and increase their mastery in better engaging and working with clients.

Creating a safe and supportive learning space

In each workshop our facilitators work hard to create a safe and supportive learning environment. Between 2009 and 2018, participants reported that 94% of participants thought the facilitators’ attitude towards participants was good to great. A participant of Heather McAlpine’s The Power of Apology workshop in Kiama, 2018 said that “Heather works so hard to include and validate individual participant’s experiences/comments/goals. Her flexibility and compassion is very much appreciated”. On the rare occurrence that feedback is less than our benchmark, Groupwork Solution’s standard of collecting evaluation data after every workshop allows our facilitators to reflect and develop their practice.

Expert group work knowledge

Groupwork Solutions works with facilitators with decades of knowledge and experience in working in groups across a range of contexts, including young people, men, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and more. Our facilitators provide a mixture of hands on practical activities that is backed up by theories about why it works to increase participants’ knowledge and expertise in facilitating groups. Participants of our workshops during 2009-2018 an average of 95% reported that the facilitators’ knowledge was good to great. Excerpts of feedback for Andrew King’s Engaging men’s responses to family violence workshop in Leederville 2018 included “Andrew’s energy – passion – wisdom – and experience was great. It made the training very good’, and “[the workshop was] energising, informative, pertinent, practical, and enlivening”. Groupwork Solutions facilitators all work within the frameworks of their professional associations (i.e. mental health, psychology, relationship counselling and youth work) as well as representing their own unique expression of best practice. In other words; they live what they teach.

Workshops that model group processes

One of the key transformative ingredients of Groupwork Solutions workshops is that the facilitators model the group processes they are training participants in. Between 2009 and 2018, 90% of participants rated the way the workshop was run as good to great. One participant said of David Nancarrow’s Core Value Therapy workshop in Hobart 2018, “it was most important to actually observe the workshop. David working with the participants about their value and seeing the skill and technique involved”.

Quality supplementary materials

In each workshop Groupwork Solutions facilitators provide handouts and manuals so that participants can revisit and refresh information in their own time and convenience. Sixty percent of participants of Groupwork Solutions workshops in 2009-2018 found the handouts very useful. We have received feedback that identifies referring to the handouts more during training, and increasing their amount of detail would be helpful rather than just supporting the information provided by the facilitator. However, the primary approach used in the training workshops is that handouts are supplementary and allow participants to review their learning after the workshop has finished. Our philosophy is that the workshop is a dynamic space where experiential learning occurs.

3-Month Post-Workshop Feedback Results

Three months after workshops are completed, participants are asked to provide feedback about their learning experience, what they hold onto, how they have put that learning into practice and the difference it has made to their work.

Kirkpatrick (2010) identified the following levels as a tool to improve evaluation of training programs. The more feedback informs the 4th level of evaluation results, the greater is the Return on Expectations (ROE) and Return on Investment (ROI) for the organisation.

Groupwork post-workshop evaluation dashboard

Working with men post-workshop evaluation dashboard

Level 4: Results and impact of the training	To what degree targeted outcomes occur, as a result of the learning events and subsequent reinforcement.
Level 3: Behaviour change	To what degree participants apply what they learned during training when they are back on the job.
Level 2: Learning from training	To what degree the participants acquire the intended knowledge, skills and attitudes based on their participation in the learning event.
Level 1: Reaction to training	To what degree participants react favourably to the learning event.