Upskilling Europe: Microcredentials in action

With his management team and all staff, Jürgen has led Cedefop to strengthen its position as a go-to ally for the EU institutions, social partners, researchers and practitioners when it comes to analysing the impacts of megatrends on the labour market, on skills, and on training ecosystems – and on how vocational education and training enables a fair digital and green transition.

Jürgen has a background in human-resources management with particular emphasis on learning and education, earned his MSc in economics at the University of Hamburg, and his PhD in business administration from the University of Vienna. 

She was Head of the research unit ‘Employment’ at the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) where she was leading the cross-European research on labour market developments (including new forms of work and employment and the future of work, digitalisation, climate change, restructuring and related public policy approaches) and topics at the intersection of employment and entrepreneurship (such as job creation, workplace practices, small and medium-sized enterprises, business start-ups and scale-ups and internationalisation, including HR management in international businesses). 

Most recently, she was Head of Unit Information and EURES at the European Labour Authority (ELA) where she was responsible for the Agency’s activities related to information provision to intra-EU mobile workers as well as for the management of the European Coordination Office of EURES, a European network facilitating job and skills matching across Europe.

Prior to that she held several other positions in the Commission, including as a Deputy Head of Unit for “Future of Work, Youth Employment”. Her professional experience includes also labour law, occupational safety and health, human resource management and organisational development. Anna holds MA degrees in sociology and psychology.

She is involved in other Cedefop activities (including the coordination of developments on national qualifications frameworks and the TVET-Interagency group on the Future of TVET). Before joining Cedefop she worked as an Educational Consultant in the Ministry of Education and Religious affairs and 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 influential articles in academic journals. She has represented Cedefop as keynote speaker at high-level international events in Europe, USA and South Africa.

His current research areas of focus include Microcredentials for labour market education and training, and excellence and inclusion 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.

Before joining the ILO, he worked as an expert at Cedefop, the European Union agency for vocational education and training, where he managed work on lifelong guidance policies. He has also held senior policy advisory roles and lectured in educational administration.

He holds a BA and an MA from the Lisbon School of Economics and Management, and a PhD from the University of Porto.

As a Senior Project Manager representing Materahub, Becky coordinates key initiatives centered on micro-credentials and competencies in support of the Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI) – including the CREDEX – Credentials for Creatives project and the Creative Pact for Skills "Micro-Credentials" working group.