Cedefop Director James Calleja welcomed Greek Deputy Minister for Education Dimitris Baxevanakis to the agency on 6 April.

Cedefop works closely with Greece in various areas of vocational education and training (VET), including the implementation of the Hellenic qualifications framework and a thematic country review on apprenticeship, as part of its support to Member States.

Mr Calleja addressed a conference on occupations and unemployment in Greece, organised by the German Friedrich Ebert foundation and hosted by Cedefop.

He expressed his hope that the conference’s conclusions will help Greece fight youth unemployment, adding: ‘In Cedefop, we work in that direction; we try to address the issue through research, analysis and, lately, brokerage – i.e. assisting Member States in their efforts to reform VET, make it more attractive and help people find jobs and live independent lives with dignity.’

Speaking at the same event, Mr Baxevanakis said that action to help Greek citizens get the right skills to find good jobs is a priority for the ministry. He mentioned apprenticeships as a way of achieving that goal, stressing that 1 200 VET graduates are already benefiting from a work experience programme in companies and that there will be 8 000 more apprenticeships in the next two years.