Irina Jemeljanova is an expert in Cedefop since 2005. She worked on the study visits programme(2007-13) and coordinated with the European Commission the Thematic working group on professional development of trainers in vocational education and training (2011-14) working on the guiding principles to improve it. Currently, she is working on teachers and trainers’ professional development and thematic country review on apprenticeship in Lithuania.  

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. During her studies in the US, she worked in the career centre for university students and the District of Columbia school district where she developed a competence framework for school principals. She then returned to Latvia to lead a unit in the Education System Improvement Project that focused on developing policy analysis capacity of the Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia.