So you want to be a CE: How to become a Credentialed Evaluator
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In the first article of this installment, we covered what the Credentialed Evaluator (CE) designation is and is not, and talked a little bit about why you might get it. In this article, we will explore what you need to do to gain your CE designation.
At Three Hive Consulting, we believe the designation has value, but recognize that getting your CE is a daunting task.
The How
Let’s dig in and explore how you actually obtain the designation. To be eligible to gain the CE designation, evaluators who are members of the CES must have:
Evidence of a graduate-level degree or a graduate certificate or diploma in Program Evaluation.
Before September 1, 2024: You must have at least two years (full-time equivalent) of evaluation-related work experience within the last 10 years.
On or after September 1, 2024: You must have at least three years (full-time equivalent) of evaluation-related work experience within the last 10 years.
Before September 1, 2024: You must have education and/or experience related to 70% of the competencies in EACH of the five domains of Competencies for Canadian Evaluation Practice.
On or after September 1, 2024: You must have education and/or experience related to 70% of the competencies in EACH of the five domains of Competencies for Canadian Evaluation Practice AND this must include Competency 1.1 and Competency 1.3. (This last piece is where we’ll focus on the most).
When you’re ready to apply, we suggest getting all of your documents ready first, before applying and spending ~$500 on your application fee (and starting the clock on your three-year time limit).
To demonstrate your education:
To demonstrate your education, you will be required to upload a copy of your certificate or graduate degree. Mine was hanging out in my parent’s house in a different province, and so obtaining ‘proof’ took a bit more coordination than most of you might need.
To highlight your work experience:
You will need to provide a project CV and references who can attest to your years of evaluation experience. You will have to fill out a reference/sponsor declaration form for each reference and have them sign it. This sponsor form is available on the CES website without paying your application fee.
To showcase your competency:
Finally, to show your competency, you must prove that you have experience in 70% of each of the five domains (Note: as identified above, this process is being modified after September 1, 2024). You can download the Competencies for Canadian Evaluation Practice from the CES website.
From the CES website, the 5 domains of practice are:
Focusing on knowledge of evaluation theory and practice; adhering to standards, guidelines, and ethics; reflection, learning and self-awareness.
Technical Practice
Focusing on the development, implementation, and completion of an evaluation.
Situational Practice
Focusing on attending the context in evaluation.
Management Practice
Focusing on the project management and facilitation aspects of an evaluation
Interpersonal Practice
Focusing on the people-skills required to conduct an evaluation.
Each domain has 7-15 competencies within it and to gain the CE designation, a member must demonstrate competency in at least 70% of each domain by providing written examples of how they have achieved each competency.
A reviewer reads what you have written and assigns you a pass or fail for each competency. As such, we don’t recommend you only provide examples for 70% of the competencies in each domain, otherwise failing just one competency means you do not obtain your CE and you must revise and re-submit your application. I ended up filling out all of the competencies, although I’ve heard some suggestions to just fill out an extra one or two competencies per domain.
The trick with the competencies is that you only have 1,000 characters to demonstrate your experience in each competency.
To assist you with this process, we’ve created a competency template, which aligns with the new competencies released in 2019. The template walks you through the domains and competencies, pointing you to relevant resources where applicable. It also gives you a warning when you are nearing or over your 1,000-character limit.
The main takeaway from this how to apply section is that you can do a lot of the time-consuming preparation work on your CE before you pay and formally begin the application process.
So, what’s stopping you from applying?
We’ve covered the technical details, now let’s talk about what might be stopping you from sitting down and filling out your experience, paying the application fee, and submitting your application.
To help us understand what was helping or hindering others from obtaining their CE, we talked to some evaluators who were considering obtaining their CE and a few who already had theirs.
Barriers to obtaining a Credentialed Evaluator designation included:
Limited value-add to their career – few workplaces place explicit value on the CE designation, as such it’s a big commitment without much return on investment.
Low priority – without external stimulus, it can be hard to set time aside to write how you have achieved all 36 competencies.
Expensive – the application fee is $485 and you must be a member of the CES, which is another $195.
Time-consuming – writing 36 concise 1,000-character descriptions of how you meet a competency takes time! A lot of time.
Unclear about the process and details – while the CES has a few webinars about the application process, the process still seems a bit obscure. How exactly does one demonstrate competency in just 1,000 characters? What does an adequate description look like?
Let us help you break down those barriers!
Stay motivated
Once you’ve decided that you want to obtain your CE designation, write down the reasons why you are applying and keep those reasons at the forefront during this process. It can be easy to lose motivation, so having a strong ‘why’ (perhaps even tying it into your performance or development goals) will help keep you motivated.
Connect with your evaluation community! There are likely other members in your CES Chapter who are also working on their CE, see if you can connect with them. Other Chapters may offer mentoring support so that you can be paired with a CE who can support you in the process.
I’m also a big fan of ‘treat yourself’. Set up external motivation and rewards. There’s nothing like taking yourself out for a fancy latte and pastry to work on your CE.
Be strategic with your time
Make sure to set aside dedicated time to work on your CE. Take it from me, it takes a lot longer if you continually jump in and out of writing up your competencies. I took the whole three years and wasted a lot of time re-writing the same competencies over and over again.
You can use our template to help keep you focused on what you have completed and what needs your attention.
Use your words sparingly
It can be tricky to include all of the relevant details of how you have demonstrated a competency in 1,000 characters. The good news is that you are encouraged to create a narrative throughout your competencies. This means that once you introduce a project, you don’t have to re-introduce it if you use it in another example.
Pick a few strong evaluation projects and use them to demonstrate the various competencies. Even better, once you’ve introduced a project, give it an acronym and save yourself a few characters of space.
Our template has a column that tracks which projects you reference for each competency so you can check that you’re creating a consistent narrative. It will help you to make sure that you aren’t re-using an example within a project.
Hopefully, by breaking down the process and providing you with a template to use, we’ve made the CE application process feel a little more attainable. Let us know how it works for you!