Enhancing European cooperation in VET – Looking back planning ahead

Jürgen has a background in human resources management with particular emphasis on learning and education, the strategic development and roll-out of work-based vocational education and training programmes, as well as related corporate social responsibility initiatives. In this context he has also collaborated with institutional actors at national, European and global levels.
Before joining Cedefop in Thessaloniki, Jürgen served for 20 years in various leading operational and strategic HR roles in Siemens AG, mostly as senior manager with global governance or business partner responsibilities. Jürgen earned his MSc in economics at the University of Hamburg, and a PhD in business administration from the University of Vienna.

Prior to joining the ETF, he was Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to India and Bhutan. He joined the European Commission in 1995, working for six years in education and training policy starting by promoting cooperation in education and training. He has developed intercultural education projects, coordinated school partnerships and teachers’ mobility across EU Member States and was part of the team which developed proposals for the first EU programme for Lifelong Learning.
He has since worked for the European Union in international trade, security and crisis management and external relations, where he was Head of Political and Security Council Affairs in the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York. Mr Onestini joined the European External Action Service in 2010, playing a key role in setting the service up, as advisor to the Chief Operating Officer and Head of the Corporate Board Secretariat, before his appointment as Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to India and Bhutan, where he served for three years.
In the 2013-14 academic year, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore. Cesare Onestini is a graduate of Oxford University, where he achieved a doctorate in higher education policy.

Mr Schinas started his career in the European Commission in 1990. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament, from 2007 until 2009. Upon the completion of his parliamentary term of office, he returned to the European Commission and held various senior positions. In 2010, President Barroso appointed Mr Schinas as Deputy Head of the Bureau of European Policy Advisers. Later he served as Resident Director and Head of the Athens Office of the European Commission's Directorate‑General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN). In 2014, President Juncker appointed Mr Schinas as the European Commission’s Chief Spokesperson.
Margaritis Schinas holds an MSc on Public Administration and Public Policy from the London School of Economics, a Diploma of Advanced European Studies on European Administrative Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges and a Degree in Law from the Aristotelean University of Thessaloniki.

From 2009 to 2018, he held the position of Minister for Labour and Employment in the Luxembourgish government. He served as a Member of the European Parliament for the social-democratic Lëtzebuerger Sozialistesch Aarbechterpartei following his election in May 2019. Nicolas Schmit holds a Doctorate in International Economic Relations and a Masters in French Literature from the University of Aix-Marseille.

2003 – 2008    Studies in business management at Fernuniversität Hagen,
Diplom-Kauffrau degree
    
since 1998    Member of the CDU.
since January 2011    Chair of the Tecklenburg CDU Association.
2004 – 2014    Member of Tecklenburg Town Council.
2009 – 2011    Deputy chair of the CDU political group on the Town Council.
2011 – 2014    Chair of the CDU political group on the Town Council
since 2013    Member of the German Bundestag.
Regular member of the Finance Committee.
Substitute member of the Budget Committee.
2017 – 2018    Secretary of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
since March 2018    Federal Minister of Education and Research.

She is a founding member and first President of the Non-profit Foundation “Desmos”, which locates surplus from companies and individuals to cover the needs of Greece’s most vulnerable citizens and social welfare organizations.

She is responsible for  developing of Estonian professional qualification system, skills analysis and development coordination system and implementation of recognition of prior learning (RPL). Her tasks include providing policy advice, analysis and technical support for the development and implementation of the Estonian Qualification Framework, coordinating professional, vocational and adult education activities in relationship with labour market and social policies.  She has experience in development of the vocational teachers’ and trainers’ profession and  supporting LO based curricula development in the field of vocational training.

She has been involved in development and implementation of European Qualification Framework (EQF) and European Credit  system  in VET (ECVET)  since 2005.  She is a member of  the EQF Advisory Group and member of the ACVT, and ESCO member states working group.

Together with her team, she is responsible for working with Member States, social partners and stakeholders for developing and implementing policies that help empower citizens with the skills they need, so they can play an active role in society. Successful initiatives like the European Alliance for Apprenticeships, Upskilling Pathways for Adults or the European Vocational Skills Week are few of the main achievements of our unit.
Prior to joining DG Employment, she served as head of unit in DG Education and Culture being responsible for the same policy areas.
Before joining the Commission in December 2011, she worked as a lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights and managed diverse projects in the field of environmental law in Central and Eastern Europe.

Cedefop is the tripartite EU Agency supporting the European Commission, Member States and Social Partners in promoting, developing and implementing Union policies in the field of vocational education and training as well as skills and qualifications.
She has been involved in vocational education and training since she joined Cedefop in 1994.
As Head of Department from 2004 to 2014 she managed teams of experts working in European VET policy analysis, adult and work-based learning with specific focus on apprenticeship-type learning and the European tools for recognition and transparency of qualifications, such as the European qualifications framework.
She holds a university degree in economics and a master in economics, politics and law of the European Union.
Her mother tongue is Italian (born in Perugia) and she is fluent in English, French, Greek and Spanish.

During his career he gained hands on experience related to the processes of reform and modernisation of VET System in Croatia and other European countries, organization of cooperation between social partners and VET, linking VET and Labour Market, Qualifications and NQF development, VET QA, etc. He has experience in monitoring and follow-up of EU policies and tools in the field of Education and Training (Education and Training 2020; EQF, ECVET, EQAVET, etc.). He was project manager of various EU and other donors funded projects in Croatia. He acted as a representative of Croatia in various bodies and networks, i.e. DGVT, ACVT, ECVET UG, EQAVET, etc.
He was author and co-author of a number of articles and publication published in Croatia and EU.

In 2015 she was part of the team of Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union when the Riga Conclusions were drafted and adopted. Her professional activities are related to VET and work-based learning policy planning and implementation, EU and transnational co-operation on VET developments in Europe. Member of the European Commission committees and working groups on VET – ACVT, ET2020 and ECVET and Cedefop Refernet team for Latvia. Through professional and research activities she has gained vast experience from various academic, research and development institutions and projects in numerous European countries. Her current policy interest is in promoting joint Baltic VET approaches and strengthening the overall Baltic capacity in VET developments.

In that capacity, she has contributed to and managed projects on national and EU comparative analysis on VET, skills and entrepreneurship. Stelina is an economist and holds a BA and an MSc from the University of Macedonia (Greece) and an MSc from the London School of Economics (UK).

I have  supported many countries with developing and implementing qualification systems reforms, including new approaches to learning and assessment. I have also made many reports and evaluations on policy reforms in VET in a wider sense. I am a strong supporter of lifelong learning and blended solutions for VET.

BDA represents the interests of small, medium-sized and large companies in all sectors and all issues linked to social policy and collective negotiations, labour legislation, labour market policy and education.

As staff member of ETF since 1996 she analysed labour markets and skills matching mechanisms in countries of Eastern Europe, Western Balkans, Central Asia and North Africa; advised policy makers in adapting vocational education and training (VET) systems to emerging socio-economic needs; designed EU programmes in vocational education and training and employment. In a managerial role Anastasia guided the ETF work in the fields of qualifications, skills and migration, education and social inclusion; VET provision and quality assurance; entrepreneurial learning and enterprise skills.

Prior to joining the European Commission, she worked in the private sector as a management consultant and for the United Nations Development Programme. She holds an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London and a Master in Public Administration and Management from the Solvay Business School (Brussels). She completed her postgraduate studies at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna.

He has also worked as a VET expert/consultant for other European countries.  Since 2018 he is a member of Cedefop’s  VET policies and systems team.

For many years she has been involved in development of vocational education and adult learning and now works mostly on development of general education and vocational education and training which is at the moment concentrated at the reform. For many years she has been a member of governing board of CEDEFOP and she has been attending Directors General meetings for Vocational Education and Training. She has been involved in development of different policies and regulations as well as taking part in Erasmus+ and European Social Fund funded projects. During Croatian Presidency of the Council of Europe she has organized and chaired meetings of Directors General for Vocational Education and Training and Directors General for Schools. She is also a Croatian representative in Advisory Committee for Vocational Training and Governing Board of European Schools.

Irina holds a degree in the English language and literature from the Latvia University and a Master of Arts in Educational leadership in the American University (Washington, DC, USA). Before joining Cedefop, Irina worked as deputy director of a secondary school in Riga, Latvia, for more than 10 years and led a unit in the Education System Improvement Project that focused on developing policy analysis capacity of the Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia.

He also coordinates Cedefop's performance measurement system which measures the relevance, efficiency and impact of Cedefop's work. George joined Cedefop in 2001 and his expertise focuses on quality assurance in VET and international qualifications. He has recently concluded a study on the impact of globalisation on VET content and qualifications.  Before joining Cedefop he worked 5 years in the European Training Foundation in Turin. He has a master's degree in Business Administration from Warwick University, UK and a master's degree in Business Computing from City University, London. He studied Information technology at the University of Athens.

Counsellor to the Secretary of State of Education, from 2000 to 2002.
In-service Training Teachers Centre Director, from 2002 to 2005.
Deputy Regional Director of Education, from 2005 to 2009.
Regional Director of Education, from 2009 to 2011.
Regional Director of the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP) of the North Region, from 2016 to 2020.

Recent work includes the development of a new policy initiative, on behalf of SOLAS and the Department of Education and Skills, to create new upskilling and reskilling opportunities for vulnerable workers and to support SMEs to develop their workforce through further education and training. Currently Mary is working on the renewal of the FET Professional Development Strategy with the sector in alignment with the new FET Strategy 2020-2025.

She also contributes to the implementation of ETF’s activities in the countries of South Eastern Europe and Turkey, including the monitoring and evaluation of country progresses in the context of EU Enlargement agenda. Before joining the ETF, Cristina worked for the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Romania, for over 10 years where served as Head of Employment Policy Unit, employment counsellor and international relations officer. Her work also covered various expert contributions to international and European projects focused on activation, skills development and social integration.

Mr Perazić performed as project manager on TEMPUS DEVCORE; TEMPUS  ECESM; TEMPUS Dellco; TEMPUS DEBUT; EEN - SME assistance through the European Enterprise Network; Creation of the "Master's Examination System in Montenegro" in cooperation with the WIFI Institute from Vienna.  He is member of project team MARDS and BLUEWBC (Erasmus + program/topic high education). Mladen Perazić, PhD, is author of a range of publications related to education system in Montenegro and its reform in accordance to EU standards, the structure and nature of EU institutions, negotiating process with EU and the obligations that Montenegro undertook, especially those related to education and VET system.

Iraklis is also involved in the Key competences in VET project, which aims to support in-depth analysis of how key competences are integrated and promoted in VET. Iraklis is an economist by training, with a PhD in didactics of Economics from the University of Macedonia. Before joining Cedefop he was an advisor to the Deputy Minister of Education in Greece focusing on VET and apprenticeship. He has also worked as a teacher in upper secondary and post-secondary education and as a researcher in tertiary education.

Anastasia is involved in several other Cedefop projects (including the project on the Changing nature and role of vocational education and training (VET) in Europe, the Future of VET, the coordination of developments on national qualifications frameworks as well as the regular policy reporting exercise). Before joining Cedefop she worked as an educational consultant in the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious affairs and 5 years as a head of the European Affairs Unit in the Organisation for Vocational Education and Training (Greece). She has performed senior management and national coordination on Europass and Leonardo da Vinci projects and has published articles in academic journals. She is a certified PM² project manager and has a Master's degree in education (M.ed) in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

She has designed and managed high-profile EU projects on vocational education and training (VET), and she has been author of influential research and policy contributions in peer-reviewed journals/books on issues of contemporary policy interest: innovative and learner-centred pedagogies; curriculum and assessment reform; learning outcomes; key competences; inclusive education and training; and teachers’ training. She has represented Cedefop as keynote speaker at high-level international events in Europe, USA and Canada.

One of her main strengths is the considerable experience acquired in working in both European (Cedefop) and international policymaking environments (the World Bank, Washington DC).

An economist by training, Antonio has taught regional economics at the University of Rome since 2002. As Head of Area at CLES in Rome, an independent centre of studies on labour market and economic development issues, before joining Cedefop he coordinated research in design, monitoring and evaluation of public investment and policy.

Lidia holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in EU economics and politics both from the University of Bologna in Italy and she also studied in Australia at the University of New South Wales and University of Sydney. Prior to Cedefop Lidia worked for five years as a research officer in Eurofound, the European Union agency for the improvement of living and working conditions, where she contributed to designing, initiating and carrying out research and comparative analysis in the field of youth employment policies.

From 2001 until 2011 she set up and headed a government agency for international marketing of vocational education and training located at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. Before she joined the ministry, Mrs. Schüller worked in the area of international exchange for several years. She holds a MA in English, French and Italian studies from the University of Cologne and an MBA from the University of Surrey.

In 2006, he moved to the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture. There he currently is working on the implementation of the EQF as CEO of the Austrian NQF Steering group; he represents Austria in the EQF advisory group. In addition, he is responsible for the ECVET implementation as chairperson of the national working group. He has also coordination and leading tasks in the field of validation of non-formal and informal learning in Austria. Actually, he is the head of a specials unit for VET politics in the Ministry. He represents Austria in the CEDEFOP governing board and as coordinator of the governments group, he has a seat in the CEDEFOP executive board.

Chairman of the Board of Omnia Education Partnerships Ltd (OEP), international commercial arm of four Finnish organizations exceling in education, training, development cooperation and humanitarian assistance.

Project Leader in EU Twinning Project in the Republic of Moldova (2019 - 2021), Kosovo (2014 – 2017) and Egypt (2013 – 2016)

2012 – 2016 Deputy Mayor (Education and Cultural Services), City of Espoo

2004 – 2012 General Director, Omnia, the Joint Authority of Education in the Espoo Region

1994 -2004 Director of Development (Education and Culture), City of Espoo

Chairman of the Section for VET, Finnish Education Evaluation Centre, 2017-2018

Expert and Councellor, UNESCO Learning Cities 2013 -

Chair, EU VET Institutions Joint Policy Committee, 2011 - 2012

President, EUproVET, European Association of VET Providers, 2009 - 2014

Council Member, Finnish Education Evaluation Council, 2009 -2014

Committee Member, Finnish National Agency for Education, Quality Assessment Committee for VET, 2007-2011

President 2007-2010, Vice President 2011-2013, the Finnish Association for the Development of Vocational Education and Training AMKE

Work based learning (WBL) and projects coordinator
2011-2015 MTÜ Eesti Pottsepad
Professional qualification process manager
2005- 2011 Tartu Vocational Education Centre
Training manager
2003-2005 CodeWiser OÜ
HR and Quality manager

My  work experience includes both private and public sector. I have worked in human resources, organising trainings and building up a national level professional qualification evaluation system. Currently my focus is on developing and promoting WBL in Estonia as well as writing and managing projects at biggest vocational education center in Estonia. I have had the pleasure of working on several international projects since 2005 and have experience with Erasmus+, ESF and ERF funding mechanisms.

He was responsible for VET policy in Apprenticeship and initial VET for many years. He also headed the division for European cooperation in Education and Training  in the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
He has worked in the Directorate for International Affairs of the Federal Ministry of Education and Science and with the International Labour Organization in Geneva and Turin. He was also responsible for the development and co-financing of UNESCO-UNEVOC in cooperation with UNESCO.
Mr Thiele is a qualified lawyer specializing in public law.

After studying in a VET School, Giuseppina graduated a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Gender Studies and is currently obtaining her MSc in International Business. Giuseppina is also a Steering Commitee Member of the Lifelong Learning Platform. Among her interests are inclusion, quality apprenticeships, participation of young people in decision making and empowerment of learners.

From 2006 to 2011 he was active in the Federation of Francophone Students (FEF), helping to mobilise other students to take collective action. He took part in the campaigns that led to a reduction in higher education costs in the French part of Belgium in 2010.

His more than 27 years of professional experience in vocational education and training were mainly acquired at the Greek Ministry of Education, the University of Athens and Cedefop. He served for many years at various Directorate posts representing Greece in EU bodies and groups.
Loukas Zahilas joined Cedefop in 2006 working on qualifications and the common EU tools. Currently he is a member of Cedefop’s management team. His department’s work supports the EC, Member States and social partners in fostering policy developments and accelerating the pace of VET reforms, focuses on strengthening cooperation to the further development and informs political discussions on the future of VET beyond 2020.

Previously he was advisor to the Cypriot Minister of Education and member of the scientific committees in Cyprus and Greece on Education Reform and Curriculum Development. In 2005, he was elected Secretary General of the Cypriot Secondary Teacher's Union, a post he held until 2008. During this period, he served as member of the Executive Committee of the ETUCE.
He taught in secondary schools in the UK and Cyprus.
He holds an MA in Curriculum Studies from the Institute of Education, London, and has a Qualified Teacher Status.