A training event does not necessarily end on the last day of the course and the timely implementation of certain follow-up activities will continue to show concern about course participants and commitment to the event itself beyond the actual implementation phase. The following are some important follow-up activities.
— Requests. It is very likely that a training event will generate requests and activities that need follow-up after the course. This can be requests for additional materials, information a source of data or sensory input, organized or arranged into a pattern which can be interpreted., a contact, a response to an unanswered question, the organization of a discussion group, development of a website and so on. Make sure that such requests are addressed properly and timely to maintain a good relationship with the former course participants and again show your concern about them.
— Reporting. Even if this is not explicitly required by the donor funding the training event or the implementing institution, it is useful, even necessary, to document the training event in a brief narrative and financial report for future reference of all involved. A good course report will include acknowledgements of all who contributed in one way or another, some background information on how the event was initiated and its justification, a profile of participants and resource persons, an overview of the programme and the activities that took place, information on the learning materials used, a summary of the evaluation and annexes with useful information. In some cases, it will also be necessary to provide more detail on the content of the activity and this can be done in a more technical course report including topic abstracts or full length papers on the presentations, including discussion sessions. All participants and course resource persons should receive a copy of the course report shortly after the event took place.
— Feedback. Not all information obtained as the result of planning, organizing and implementing a training event can be included in a course report. Where needed, and at the discretion of the course organizers, feedback about specific performance can be provided to individuals so that they can improve their participation in future events. This should be done in a positive or constructive manner.
— Impact assessment. Training has often been seen as a quick fix to address a perceived need with little attention being paid to finding out whether this has really achieved its aims and objectives in terms of knowledge A complex construction of information and individual experience with an interrelatedsocial and environmental dimension. (N.B. many different interpretations of knowledgeexist, and this is one preferred in this Toolkit), skills and attitudes acquired as a result of attending the training. Even though time-consuming and complex, impact assessment is increasingly being considered and requested by those concerned with training to justify the human and logistic investment and cost. Impact assessment must consider both the individual and the employing institution. Topic 9 Evaluating and assessing training courses in this Toolkit provides more background and ideas on this important subject. The World Agroforestry Centre is currently conducting some research on the impact assessment of its training activities. In addition to this, we use ‘Personal Action Planning’ and ‘Small Grants Projects’ (see annexes 11 and 12) as two approaches that give an idea of how course participants apply their newly gained knowledge, skills and attitudes in the context of their day-to-day work. Other approaches that have been used are specially designed impact assessment questionnaires that are sent to course alumni after a selected period of time (6, 9 or 12 months) (see annex 13).