Evaluation of new policies is now standard across government. To ensure civil servants and private-sector practitioners have the necessary skills to conduct a rigorous evaluation – or interpret the findings – IFS teaches a training course on policy evaluation methods. The course now runs three times a year and always oversubscribed. Participants come from government departments, central banks, international development institutions and universities.

The following testimonial demonstrates the impact of the course on developing evaluation expertise: "I am an economist working at DFES on appraisal and evaluation of policies affecting schools. I have written a short, non-technical introduction to non-experimental methods of policy evaluation designed for other economists and statisticians at DFES. It draws on notes I made from attending your excellent Cemmap course."