ABSTRACT
The vocational training study course provides the formal educational component of vocational training and is designed to complement in-practice training opportunities. The difference between evaluation and assessment is that the participant or the organisation generates the value response to an evaluation procedure, while assessment relies on the trainer or tutor setting the value system. The learning evaluation is designed to discover what principles, techniques and facts have been understood and absorbed by the vocational dental practitioner (VDP). The learning evaluation is not concerned with how those principles, techniques and facts will be translated into the practising environment. The impact of a study session on the VDP's practical performance can only be measured at practice level and trainers are ideally placed to review this. Training and learning must be seen to have value. It is not enough to review experiences but it is more useful to see what behavioural changes have taken place as a result of the training programme.
