This thesis evaluates the evaluations of federal institutional training to determine whether these produce reliable feedback on program performance. It is based on evaluations of the Canada Manpower Training Program (CMTP), the National Institutional Training Program (NITP) and the Direct Purchase Option (DPO) of the Canadian Job Strategy (CJS). Comparisons among the tools and techniques used in evaluating these three programs reveal that improved methods have been incorporated over time. However, a review of United States literature on social program evaluation reveals that these upgrades have not kept pace with research advances in this area. This thesis concludes that the methods used in evaluating federal institutional training and problems in their application have prevented evaluators from reliably assessing the performance of the CMTP, NITP and DPO programs.

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