Kirkpatrick® Builder Certification Program

The Kirkpatrick® Builder Certification is a hands-on credential that equips learning and performance professionals to design the evaluation instruments that prove training drives performance. While most evaluation training stops at theory, the Builder Certification puts the tools in your hands — you leave able to design, justify, and integrate a complete set of evaluation instruments across all four Kirkpatrick Levels, backed by a defensible chain of evidence.

This is the founding cohort: a working intensive limited to a small group, where most of your time is spent building real instruments for your own initiative and getting live critique from the program designer. You don’t watch someone evaluate. You build.

Who Is This For?

• L&D professionals who are tired of smile sheets and want to measure what training actually changes
• Evaluation consultants who need a repeatable, defensible instrument-design toolkit
• Instructional designers ready to own the full evaluation lifecycle, not just the learning event
• HR and talent development leaders responsible for proving the business impact of learning

Recommended Prerequisite: Kirkpatrick Bronze Certification, or equivalent practical experience designing Kirkpatrick-aligned evaluations.

Why Join?

Build the Instruments, Don’t Just Study Them

Most evaluation training teaches you about surveys, interviews, and rubrics. This program teaches you to build them — correctly, defensibly, and for real use. Every session is a working sprint: you draft an instrument for your own initiative, then refine it through live critique. You leave with tools you can put to work the week you return.

Leave With a Real Deliverable

You wouldn’t hand a stakeholder an evaluation you couldn’t defend. This program is built around a complete Builder Evaluation Toolkit — a set of working instruments spanning Levels 1–4, assembled into a single coherent chain of evidence for your own organizational initiative. Not a classroom exercise. A toolkit you’ll actually use.

Shape the Future of This Program

The founding cohort isn’t just a group of participants — it’s a group of contributors. You’ll have direct access to the program designer for feedback, discussion, and refinement, and your experience will shape how this certification evolves. There is no other cohort that gets this level of access — or this rate.

Advance Your Career and Practice

The Kirkpatrick Builder credential signals something increasingly rare: the proven ability to design evaluation that stakeholders trust, across every level of impact. Paired with the Kirkpatrick name — the most trusted brand in evaluation — it’s a professional advantage that stands out in any room.

What You Will Learn

Session 1 — Foundations & Your First Instrument

Useful data, credible data, and the chain of evidence.

• Distinguish useful data from credible data — and design for both
• Apply the signal-to-noise principle to every evaluation design decision
• Map an initiative across all four Kirkpatrick Levels as a chain of evidence
• Build a learner-centered survey that measures knowledge, attitude, confidence, and commitment — not satisfaction
• Apply a reusable design-quality checklist (validity, reliability, bias, timing) you’ll use all week

Session 2 — Measuring Learning & Choosing the Right Method

Proving capability was built, and selecting the right instrument for the decision.

• Design Level 2 assessments that validly measure knowledge and skill
• Choose between recognition, recall, and performance-based assessment — and justify the choice
• Identify when a survey is the wrong instrument, and select the right alternative
• Build a mixed-method data strategy with a feasibility screen for your own initiative

Session 3 — Observing Behavior

Measuring behavior objectively and at scale.

• Translate critical behaviors into observable, inference-free criteria
• Build an observation rubric a second person could apply consistently
• Distinguish rubrics from checklists — and know when each one fits
• Design manager-confirmation prompts that add credibility to self-reported behavior

Session 4 — Measuring Results

Connecting behavior to the results executives pay for.

• Identify leading indicators that connect target behaviors to a business result
• Design a Level 4 outcome-tracking instrument framed as Return on Expectations
• Define the attribution boundary — what your initiative can and cannot credibly claim
• Apply the signal-to-noise principle to avoid vanity metrics

Session 5 — Integration & Capstone Assembly

Turning instruments into a chain of evidence stakeholders trust.

• Integrate qualitative and quantitative data across your instruments
• Translate findings into insights, implications, and recommendations
• Assemble your instruments into a complete Builder Evaluation Toolkit
• Defend your design decisions in Kirkpatrick terms

Learning Objectives

Upon completing all five sessions and the capstone deliverable, participants will be able to:

• Design valid, credible evaluation instruments across Kirkpatrick Levels 1–4
• Select and justify the right instrument for each evaluation purpose using the signal-to-noise principle
• Apply core design principles — validity, reliability, bias reduction, and timing — to any instrument they build
• Integrate multiple data sources into a coherent, defensible chain of evidence

Capstone Deliverable

To earn the Kirkpatrick Builder credential, participants develop and submit a complete Builder Evaluation Toolkit — built incrementally across all five sessions and assembled during Session 5.

The toolkit includes:

• A chain-of-evidence map and instrument-to-level matrix for the participant’s initiative
• A learner-centered survey (Levels 1–2)
• A Level 2 knowledge or skill assessment with a scoring key
• A mixed-method data strategy with a feasibility screen
• A focus group guide and an interview protocol
• An observation rubric, a performance checklist, and manager-confirmation prompts
• Work-artifact review criteria
• Leading indicators and a Level 4 outcome-tracking instrument

Toolkits are reviewed by Kirkpatrick Partners facilitators.

What You Get

• 15 hours of live, facilitated online instruction across five sessions
• Session recordings for ongoing reference
• Templates and instrument-design resources for every Kirkpatrick Level
• Incremental capstone development with facilitator guidance throughout
• Written facilitator feedback on your completed Builder Evaluation Toolkit
• Kirkpatrick Builder credential

Completion Requirements

• Attendance at all five live sessions (required for certification)
• Submission of completed Builder Evaluation Toolkit
• Completion of final program survey

Program Details

Dates: September 28-October 2, 2026

Time: 1:30–4:30 PM Eastern each day

Format: Live Online | 5 Sessions | 15 Hours of Instruction

Total time commitment: Approximately 20-25 hours including async assignments

The Next Step in Your Certification Journey

The Kirkpatrick Builder Certification builds directly on the foundation established in Bronze and Silver — turning the framework you know into instruments you can design with confidence.

• Already certified at Bronze or Silver? This program is your next evolution — putting the tools of the methodology directly in your hands.
• New to Kirkpatrick? We recommend completing the Bronze certification first to ensure you get the most from this program.

Program Cost

• Founding Cohort Rate: $1,050 per person (available for this cohort only)
• Regular Rate: $1,898 per person
• Group Rate (3+ from the same organization): Contact us for pricing
• 10% discount for government, military, or nonprofit employees

To register, complete the interest form below. We will follow up with an invoice within 1–2 business days. Enrollment is confirmed upon receipt of payment.

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