EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION
OF TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR
LABOR MARKET INTEGRATION

EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION OF TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR LABOR MARKET INTEGRATION

CONTEXT | OBJECTIVES | ABOUT THE PROJECT | GALLERY

Within the framework of the ISOT project (Social Innovation in Traditional Trades), CESAL ONG launched a process of evolutionary evaluation of its training programs in traditional trades such as retail, gastronomy, and hospitality.

Developed across three territories—Granada, Valencia, and Madrid—these programs are an innovative bet on social inclusion and employment, creatively linking vocational training (especially for people at risk of social exclusion) with the sustainability of traditional trades at risk of disappearing.

The project represents a major organizational challenge, as its success depends on collaboration between diverse actors: markets, public administrations, businesses, social entities, and local communities.

Together with the Agirre Lehendakaria Center, Atelier itd supports CESAL ONG in embedding an evolutionary evaluation methodology to tackle this challenge and enhance the quality, relevance, and impact of its training programs.

Unlike traditional evaluations, usually conducted at the end of a project and from an external perspective, evolutionary evaluation is integrated throughout the programs’ development. It collects real-time feedback from stakeholders, identifies challenges and opportunities, and adjusts direction when needed—enabling continuous design and improvement.

Beyond improving current training programs, this process aims to strengthen CESAL’s organizational learning culture, generating benefits that transcend the specific objectives of the evaluation and add long-term value to the organization.

Thematic area:
Not assigned

Lines of work:
Collaborative learning

Territory:
Cross-cutting project

Duration:
June 2025 – ongoing

Status:
In progress

Partners:
CESAL ONG
Agirre Lehendakaria Center

Thematic area:
Not assigned

Lines of work:
Collaborative learning

Territory:
Cross-cutting project

Duration:
June 2025 – ongoing

Status:
In progress

Partners:
CESAL ONG
Agirre Lehendakaria Center

Within the framework of the ISOT project (Social Innovation in Traditional Trades), CESAL ONG launched a process of evolutionary evaluation of its training programs in traditional trades such as retail, gastronomy, and hospitality.

Developed across three territories—Granada, Valencia, and Madrid—these programs are an innovative bet on social inclusion and employment, creatively linking vocational training (especially for people at risk of social exclusion) with the sustainability of traditional trades at risk of disappearing.

The project represents a major organizational challenge, as its success depends on collaboration between diverse actors: markets, public administrations, businesses, social entities, and local communities.

Together with the Agirre Lehendakaria Center, Atelier itd supports CESAL ONG in embedding an evolutionary evaluation methodology to tackle this challenge and enhance the quality, relevance, and impact of its training programs.

Unlike traditional evaluations, usually conducted at the end of a project and from an external perspective, evolutionary evaluation is integrated throughout the programs’ development. It collects real-time feedback from stakeholders, identifies challenges and opportunities, and adjusts direction when needed—enabling continuous design and improvement.

Beyond improving current training programs, this process aims to strengthen CESAL’s organizational learning culture, generating benefits that transcend the specific objectives of the evaluation and add long-term value to the organization.

Thematic area:
Not assigned

Lines of work:
Collaborative learning

Territory:
Cross-cutting project

Duration:
June 2025 – ongoing

Status:
In progress

Partners:
CESAL ONG
Agirre Lehendakaria Center

Within the framework of the ISOT project (Social Innovation in Traditional Trades), CESAL ONG launched a process of evolutionary evaluation of its training programs in traditional trades such as retail, gastronomy, and hospitality.

Developed across three territories—Granada, Valencia, and Madrid—these programs are an innovative bet on social inclusion and employment, creatively linking vocational training (especially for people at risk of social exclusion) with the sustainability of traditional trades at risk of disappearing.

The project represents a major organizational challenge, as its success depends on collaboration between diverse actors: markets, public administrations, businesses, social entities, and local communities.

Together with the Agirre Lehendakaria Center, Atelier itd supports CESAL ONG in embedding an evolutionary evaluation methodology to tackle this challenge and enhance the quality, relevance, and impact of its training programs.

Unlike traditional evaluations, usually conducted at the end of a project and from an external perspective, evolutionary evaluation is integrated throughout the programs’ development. It collects real-time feedback from stakeholders, identifies challenges and opportunities, and adjusts direction when needed—enabling continuous design and improvement.

Beyond improving current training programs, this process aims to strengthen CESAL’s organizational learning culture, generating benefits that transcend the specific objectives of the evaluation and add long-term value to the organization.

OBJECTIVES

The project seeks to improve the quality and relevance of CESAL ONG’s training and labor insertion programs through innovative evaluation processes based on stakeholder listening, collective interpretation, and co-creation.

Specific objectives:

Support CESAL’s territorial teams in applying evolutionary evaluation in practice: adapt joint work with local teams in Madrid, Granada, and Valencia, as well as with the general coordination team, ensuring consistent and context-sensitive implementation.
Train CESAL ONG and its local teams so evolutionary evaluation becomes independently embedded in their long-term work: ensure that the capacities generated are replicable and contribute to the ongoing improvement of program impact.
Strengthen an organizational learning culture within CESAL ONG: foster capacities for knowledge management and continuous learning across the organization.

OBJECTIVES

The project seeks to improve the quality and relevance of CESAL ONG’s training and labor insertion programs through innovative evaluation processes based on stakeholder listening, collective interpretation, and co-creation.

Specific objectives:

Support CESAL’s territorial teams in applying evolutionary evaluation in practice: adapt joint work with local teams in Madrid, Granada, and Valencia, as well as with the general coordination team, ensuring consistent and context-sensitive implementation.
Train CESAL ONG and its local teams so evolutionary evaluation becomes independently embedded in their long-term work: ensure that the capacities generated are replicable and contribute to the ongoing improvement of program impact.
Strengthen an organizational learning culture within CESAL ONG: foster capacities for knowledge management and continuous learning across the organization.

OBJECTIVES

The project seeks to improve the quality and relevance of CESAL ONG’s training and labor insertion programs through innovative evaluation processes based on stakeholder listening, collective interpretation, and co-creation.

Specific objectives:

Support CESAL’s territorial teams in applying evolutionary evaluation in practice: adapt joint work with local teams in Madrid, Granada, and Valencia, as well as with the general coordination team, ensuring consistent and context-sensitive implementation.
Train CESAL ONG and its local teams so evolutionary evaluation becomes independently embedded in their long-term work: ensure that the capacities generated are replicable and contribute to the ongoing improvement of program impact.
Strengthen an organizational learning culture within CESAL ONG: foster capacities for knowledge management and continuous learning across the organization.

APPROACH

The innovation and social inclusion objectives of CESAL’s ISOT project imply systemic transformation processes. Understanding, evaluating, and improving these processes requires moving beyond linear, stable, pre-defined evaluation models. The evolutionary evaluation approach applied here is structured in four main iterative phases:

[1] Mapping: Identify people, organizations, and initiatives already linked to training, or potential new connections.

Builds a broader, shared vision among CESAL teams of all actors and initiatives connected to training.
Produces a list of individuals for listening activities (interviews, conversations, etc.) who can be involved in improving the programs.

[2] Listening: Collect and analyze qualitative insights on the perceptions and experiences of people connected to training.

Identifies strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities that might otherwise remain hidden.
Strengthens relationships with stakeholders, building trust and closeness.
Broadens the scope of listening by including diverse actors and initiatives in a more systematic way.

[3] Collective interpretation: Reflect jointly with stakeholders on the qualitative information gathered.

Validates the accuracy of collected insights by ensuring all perspectives are fairly represented.
Reveals common patterns and shared narratives to guide improvement proposals.

[4] Co-creation: Propose and design improvements based on patterns and narratives identified in collective interpretation.

Collect, in a structured way, a set of concrete ideas to address the challenges identified during the listening process.
Generate a sense of ownership and agency among the people involved in the training improvement proposals.

ACTIVITIES

Over the three years of the project, we provide progressive support to CESAL ONG to embed evolutionary evaluation practices. During the first year, we establish close support, working directly with CESAL ONG teams in evaluating the training programs. In the following two years, we ensure the training of local teams so that they can carry out the evaluation themselves and integrate these practices into their daily work.

The support unfolds through a series of activities, organized according to the phases of evolutionary evaluation:

Mapping: Compile and systematize lists of stakeholders involved in the different training programs and connected initiatives, identifying existing or potential connections among them.
Listening: Conduct and systematize interviews and focus groups with people involved in the training programs; collect and systematize observations from field visits to the places where training takes place.
Collective interpretation: Hold roundtables with stakeholders who participated in the listening phase to share the results of the mapping and listening activities.
Co-creation: Facilitate workshops to propose improvements to the training programs based on the collective interpretation.

To carry out these activities, we coordinate the monitoring of local teams and hold training workshops with them to ensure their capacity to apply practices across all phases of evolutionary evaluation.

TARGET COMMUNITIES AND ENTITIES

RESULTS

The close collaboration with CESAL ONG is expected to build the capacity of territorial teams in applying evolutionary evaluation, enabling them to analyze the complexity of the ecosystem in which they operate and to identify progressive improvements in the ISOT programs.

The project also seeks to ensure that the evolutionary evaluation process becomes independently and sustainably embedded in the work of local teams, thereby strengthening the organization’s knowledge management capacities in the long term.

APPROACH

The innovation and social inclusion objectives of CESAL’s ISOT project imply systemic transformation processes. Understanding, evaluating, and improving these processes requires moving beyond linear, stable, pre-defined evaluation models. The evolutionary evaluation approach applied here is structured in four main iterative phases:

[1] Mapping: Identify people, organizations, and initiatives already linked to training, or potential new connections.

Builds a broader, shared vision among CESAL teams of all actors and initiatives connected to training.
Produces a list of individuals for listening activities (interviews, conversations, etc.) who can be involved in improving the programs.

[2] Listening: Collect and analyze qualitative insights on the perceptions and experiences of people connected to training.

Identifies strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities that might otherwise remain hidden.
Strengthens relationships with stakeholders, building trust and closeness.
Broadens the scope of listening by including diverse actors and initiatives in a more systematic way.

[3] Collective interpretation: Reflect jointly with stakeholders on the qualitative information gathered.

Validates the accuracy of collected insights by ensuring all perspectives are fairly represented.
Reveals common patterns and shared narratives to guide improvement proposals.

[4] Co-creation: Propose and design improvements based on patterns and narratives identified in collective interpretation.

Collect, in a structured way, a set of concrete ideas to address the challenges identified during the listening process.
Generate a sense of ownership and agency among the people involved in the training improvement proposals.

ACTIVITIES

Over the three years of the project, we provide progressive support to CESAL ONG to embed evolutionary evaluation practices. During the first year, we establish close support, working directly with CESAL ONG teams in evaluating the training programs. In the following two years, we ensure the training of local teams so that they can carry out the evaluation themselves and integrate these practices into their daily work.

The support unfolds through a series of activities, organized according to the phases of evolutionary evaluation:

Mapping: Compile and systematize lists of stakeholders involved in the different training programs and connected initiatives, identifying existing or potential connections among them.
Listening: Conduct and systematize interviews and focus groups with people involved in the training programs; collect and systematize observations from field visits to the places where training takes place.
Collective interpretation: Hold roundtables with stakeholders who participated in the listening phase to share the results of the mapping and listening activities.
Co-creation: Facilitate workshops to propose improvements to the training programs based on the collective interpretation.

To carry out these activities, we coordinate the monitoring of local teams and hold training workshops with them to ensure their capacity to apply practices across all phases of evolutionary evaluation.

TARGET COMMUNITIES AND ENTITIES

RESULTS

The close collaboration with CESAL ONG is expected to build the capacity of territorial teams in applying evolutionary evaluation, enabling them to analyze the complexity of the ecosystem in which they operate and to identify progressive improvements in the ISOT programs.

The project also seeks to ensure that the evolutionary evaluation process becomes independently and sustainably embedded in the work of local teams, thereby strengthening the organization’s knowledge management capacities in the long term.

APPROACH

The innovation and social inclusion objectives of CESAL’s ISOT project imply systemic transformation processes. Understanding, evaluating, and improving these processes requires moving beyond linear, stable, pre-defined evaluation models. The evolutionary evaluation approach applied here is structured in four main iterative phases:

[1] Mapping: Identify people, organizations, and initiatives already linked to training, or potential new connections.

Builds a broader, shared vision among CESAL teams of all actors and initiatives connected to training.
Produces a list of individuals for listening activities (interviews, conversations, etc.) who can be involved in improving the programs.

[2] Listening: Collect and analyze qualitative insights on the perceptions and experiences of people connected to training.

Identifies strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities that might otherwise remain hidden.
Strengthens relationships with stakeholders, building trust and closeness.
Broadens the scope of listening by including diverse actors and initiatives in a more systematic way.

[3] Collective interpretation: Reflect jointly with stakeholders on the qualitative information gathered.

Validates the accuracy of collected insights by ensuring all perspectives are fairly represented.
Reveals common patterns and shared narratives to guide improvement proposals.

[4] Co-creation: Propose and design improvements based on patterns and narratives identified in collective interpretation.

Collect, in a structured way, a set of concrete ideas to address the challenges identified during the listening process.
Generate a sense of ownership and agency among the people involved in the training improvement proposals.

ACTIVITIES

Over the three years of the project, we provide progressive support to CESAL ONG to embed evolutionary evaluation practices. During the first year, we establish close support, working directly with CESAL ONG teams in evaluating the training programs. In the following two years, we ensure the training of local teams so that they can carry out the evaluation themselves and integrate these practices into their daily work.

The support unfolds through a series of activities, organized according to the phases of evolutionary evaluation:

Mapping: Compile and systematize lists of stakeholders involved in the different training programs and connected initiatives, identifying existing or potential connections among them.
Listening: Conduct and systematize interviews and focus groups with people involved in the training programs; collect and systematize observations from field visits to the places where training takes place.
Collective interpretation: Hold roundtables with stakeholders who participated in the listening phase to share the results of the mapping and listening activities.
Co-creation: Facilitate workshops to propose improvements to the training programs based on the collective interpretation.

To carry out these activities, we coordinate the monitoring of local teams and hold training workshops with them to ensure their capacity to apply practices across all phases of evolutionary evaluation.

TARGET COMMUNITIES AND ENTITIES

RESULTS

The close collaboration with CESAL ONG is expected to build the capacity of territorial teams in applying evolutionary evaluation, enabling them to analyze the complexity of the ecosystem in which they operate and to identify progressive improvements in the ISOT programs.

The project also seeks to ensure that the evolutionary evaluation process becomes independently and sustainably embedded in the work of local teams, thereby strengthening the organization’s knowledge management capacities in the long term.