Evaluation of the continuous training in the Spanish School of the Judicial Power

Training evaluation, conceptualized as the analysis of the total value of a training system in terms of both social and financial, is a necessary process to assess whether the investment on training is effective; moreover, in a public organization such as the School of the Judicial Power, it takes a value of accountability of the use of public funds and their impact on the development of Spanish judges.

The aim of this paper is to analyze how the training evaluation at the School of the Judicial Power is carried out, and to suggest proposals to improve it, in order to increase training effectiveness. To achieve this goal, starting from the international literature in the field of evaluation of training, we analyzed documents on the evaluation of judicial training, and the results of a survey administered to a sample of 240 judges and magistrates who participated in training.

The results indicate that the way to evaluate the training for Spanish judges and magistrates is partial, and it do not consider relevant dimensions, including transfer, as well as valuable information sources that could provide information to propose strategies to enhance the effectiveness of training.