Background

The European Prevention Curriculum (EUPC) is a European initiative to promote professional and quality‐assured substance use prevention. EUPC courses are being implemented or prepared in most EU countries. Standardised instruments are available for routine evaluation using pre-/post-tests with course participants. These focus on knowledge and skills gains closely related to the curriculum. However, other outcomes and evaluation approaches may be worth considering. The ongoing EUPC evaluation in Austria addresses this question.

Methods

To identify potential benefits of EUPC, we first undertook an informal needs assessment involving major national stakeholders in prevention and health promotion. We next asked participants in a trial implementation of the EUPC basic module (n=19) to identify potential benefits. We also discussed the question within the project team and with funders. Findings were contrasted and combined with outcome categories from existing EUPC evaluations.

Results

Participants in the trial run praised the potential for increased professionalisation, quality assurance and evidence‐based working, and also for exchanges of perspectives, networking and a common professional language. National stakeholders valued the idea of a standardised basic course that i) aligns with EU expectations and ii) addresses prevention specialists as well as other professionals and can thus bring together different institutions and professions. These potential benefits echo existing EUPC outcome categories, but also address different aspects.

Discussion

A pre-/post-test focusing on knowledge and skills might not capture important potential benefits of EUPC, as perceived by target audiences and stakeholders. It may be argued that not all suggested benefits are worth considering, e.g. because they could distract from key outcomes defined by EUPC developers. However, our findings show that the value and success of EUPC can be defined in different ways. Those involved in evaluating EUPC could use our results to further clarify and develop desirable outcomes and evaluation approaches.