On April 28, 2023, FTA together with the Czech Evaluation Society organized a competition for students of bachelor's and master's programs in relevant fields related to the project cycle and evaluation. The purpose of the competition is to develop awareness and raise the profile of the evaluation field and the profession of evaluators. Students in small teams compete for the best proposal for an evaluation approach to a specific project/programme evaluation assignment. The primary goal of the competition is building evaluation capacities. Students get the opportunity to test and apply theoretical knowledge from methodological (and other) courses in practice, develop evaluative thinking and the ability to analyze, acquire and further develop their skills, including teamwork.
A total of five teams participated in the competition this year. Each team has its own coach - a teacher at a university where relevant courses are taught, e.g., evaluation, social science methodology, project cycle, etc. Petra Chaloupková, who prepares students for the competition as part of the Project Monitoring and Evaluation course, entered two teams of students for FTA. Teams (3-5 members) have the task of preparing a proposal for the evaluation of a specific example from practice on a set day within 5 hours; the proposal contains standard parts of the evaluation offer – context, scope, methodology, example questions, schedule and budget. The proposals prepared by the competition teams will be evaluated according to predetermined criteria by a jury composed of practicing evaluators. Interesting rewards await the winning team and they will have the opportunity to present their evaluation proposal at the Czech Evaluation Society annual conference hosted at FTA on 15th June 2023.
