On Monday 16 October 2017 the General Secretariat for Lifelong Learning & Youth of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs, organised a conference on “The European agenda for Adult education and training”. Cedefop expert, Anastasia Pouliou participated and presented Cedefop’s role in European policies, lifelong learning and the New Skills agenda.

The event (which was web streamed) took place in Athens, at the Greek National Gallery of Stavros Niarhos Foundation, and participants included the Deputy Minister of Education Dimitrios Baxevanakis, representatives of the Greek Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education in Cyprus. International representatives included the Programmes Coordinator of European Basic Skills Network (EBSN), of ‘One step up’ action in Ireland (which is managed by AONTAS, the National Co-ordinator for the Implementation of the European Agenda for Adult Learning (EAAL)) and of Erasmus+ programs in France.

Ms Pouliou in her speech mentioned Cedefop’s priorities for the period till 2020 and how Cedefop is looking ahead to stimulate the debate on European VET cooperation until 2030. She also presented the early findings of the research of one of Cedefop’s flagship projects ‘the changing nature and role of VET’  which was very positively received. According to Ms Pouliou, this project ‘takes a step back to gain deep understanding of the various VET systems in Europe and how these have developed in the last two decades (1995-2015) and help present possible development scenarios for a European VET in the 21st century’.