Cedefop conference on the impact of globalisation on VET: challenges and opportunities, Thessaloniki 26 and 27 November 2015

For more than 25 years Wilfried Boomgaert is working in the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training. Since 1998, he is following up the education and training policy of the European Union and since 2005 he is co-ordinating the education related chapters in the agreements between the Flemish Government and the professional sectors, the so-called sector covenants. He is involved in the Bruges-Copenhagen process since the start in 2001 and is member of the Advisory Committee for Vocational Education and Training (ACVT), the Advisory Group on EQF (EQF AG) and the ESCO Board. During the Belgian EU Presidency in 2010 he coordinated the redaction of the Bruges Communiquι concerning enhanced European cooperation in VET. He participated, as an international expert, in the referencing of the Irish, Dutch and Bulgarian National Qualifications Framework to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). In 2014-2015 he chaired the ad hoc sub-group of the EQF AG on International Sectoral Qualifications.

Brigitte Bouquet was was in charge of the supervision of the French Labour Agency, and AFPA, the most important public association for vocational education in France up to 2005.

Within the ministry in charge of economy and employment, Brigitte was from 2006 to 2009 in charge of coordinating all the ministries in charge of VET , in order to develop one  of the French forms of  validation of prior learning (in French validation des acquis de l’expérience) . 

She was appointed as “Rapporteur Général” of the CNCP, the French national qualifications authority in charge of the National Qualification Framework, in 20009. She represents France in the meetings organized by the European commission for the implementation of the Recommendation on EQF. She participates to many working grou pof the EQF advisory group.  For the French QF, she participates to many groups with the ministries and the social partners in order to develop and improve the French qualification framework and its quality assurance. She was in charge group working on the creation of the Inventaire,(database gathering qualifications important for the labour market, but without a level).  She is graduated in law, (université de Paris 2) political sciences and was trained at the French “ecole nationale d’administration”

Mrs. Krasimira Brozig is an experienced expert with more than 20 years of professional experience in the area of vocational education and training (management, research and teaching). She is executive secretary at the National Agency for Vocational Education and Training (NAVET), the state body in Bulgaria responsible for invovlvement of social partners in VET, licensing of the centres for vocational training for adults, development and upgrading the Catalogue of qualifications and State educational standards by vocations.

Her current activities focus on the following topics: development of а system for validation of prior learning in VET, EU transparency tools in VET policy - European and National Qualifications Framework, European Credit System in VET (ECVET) as well as related topics (learning outcomes, quality assurance, involvement of social partners in VET activities).

Mrs Brozig is a member of EQF-Validation advisory group.

Born on the 13th of February 1960 55 years old President of the Malta Printing Industry Association an active member of Intergraf European Federation for Print and digital communication.

Gerneral Manager at Salesain Press Sliema Malta

Part Time Printing teacher at MCAST the Main Vet Provider in Malta.

Chartered Marketer with a Professional Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing.

Mr James Calleja has been involved in vocational training since 2001.

Before his appointment as Director of Cedefop in October 2013, he served as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Employment (2011-2013) in his native Malta. In 2005 he was entrusted with the setting up of the Malta Qualifications Council where he served as Chief Executive up to December 2010.

Mr Calleja is a graduate of the Universities of Malta, Padua (Italy) and Bradford (UK). In the UK he obtained his PhD from the Department of Peace Studies on a thesis on education and international relations in the context of Kant’s political philosophy.

A prolific writer, Mr Calleja has published books and articles and has edited various publications. He is the co-author of the Malta Referencing Report of the Malta Qualifications Framework to the EQF and the QF-EHEA.

Full Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal, since October 2015 Visiting Professor, Cranfield University, School of Industrial Science,United Kingdom, since 2004 Executive Director of the European Welding Federation, since 1992.

Consultant, Advisor to the Board Directors of ISQ - Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade, since 1984.

L. Coutinho has coordinated and participated in more than 100 national and international research, transfer of technology and training projects since 1986 and has published more than 200 books, papers in national and international journals and conference proceedings.

Her work has been recognized internationally in different forums through two honorary doctorships and ten international awards.

L. Coutinho has been involved, as an entrepreneureur in the start up companies Lasindustria, a laser job-shop, 1989, Intersis, development of industrial automation systems, 1990, SAF, multimedia training materials, 1992 ,QS&S, management and technical consultancy, 1995

International Management Consultant –
Business Management,
Quality Management,
Human Resource Management

Consultant in VET Sector,

Consultant with 30+ years of experience in the Social Services Sector in management, leadership, service delivery and quality systems

Member of Quality Expert Group that created EQUASS – European Quality Assurance Social Sector standard and certification system for Social Services in Europe

Managing Director, City & Guilds International

City & Guilds offers skills-development and skills credentialing services to employers, training providers, governments and individual learners through a number of offices in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, South Asia and South East Asia.

Mike has worked for City & Guilds for 19 years.  He first joined the International team to manage City & Guilds' investment into a joint venture in India. The joint venture company, IndiaSkills, offers training and qualification to learners across India and Nepal. Prior to working with City & Guilds' International business, he headed City & Guilds’ Centre for Skills Development (CSD), a research and development team which seeks to support policy makers and practitioners.

Before working with CSD, Mike managed a team that introduced technological solutions into vocational education, including some relating to e-learning and e-assessment. He was responsible for the implementation of City & Guilds' on-screen assessment solution - the first of its kind in the UK's further education sector.

Prior to working at City & Guilds Mike researched regulation of, and the financial returns to, management of arid land areas for organisations in the wildlife industry in Southern Africa. His work helped support rural economic improvements and he developed a lasting interest in how commercial success can drive broader social development - a subject that continues to drive his views in his current role.

Ann-Sofie Galjaard works as Training Officer at the Centre for Training Quality and Expertise of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in Malta.

She is responsible for the certification and accreditation of the EASO Training Curriculum as well as EASO’s training on inclusion, end of protection and the development of an advanced training on inclusion.

Ann-Sofie holds a Master of Laws from the University of Stockholm. She has worked in the field of asylum since 1996. Before joining EASO, she worked as an Expert for the Swedish Migration Agency where she was involved in the Council Working Group on Asylum for the recast Asylum Procedures Directive and the recast Qualification Directive. She has also trained staff on the EU asylum acquis instruments. She has previously worked for a law firm in Sweden handling asylum cases and as a legal researcher for NGOs both in Sweden and the Netherlands. She enjoys gardening and recently bought a lemon tree and two olive trees.

Tusè Luciano   founded in 1983 ELSFORM, Vocational EDucation and Training Agency located in the heart of the city of Chieti  Italy , and for over 30 years has been operating in the fields of education and consultation.Since 1998 ,He has focused  the analysis of the real skill needs coming from the local companies and factories.For this purpose,he has started partnership with a whole range of little and medium companies,thus creating a direct communicative link between demand and offer on the labour market.In this way and from this point,the educational mission and the training services released by himself has been conceived as  a ‘conveyor   belt’ between the active population and the skill shortage claimed by the productive field.As  director of ELSFORM ,He arranged  the mission of the vocational agency  in four points :

1. To implement and promote a “ business-oriented culture “ in specific competences related to production, commerce,tourism sectors.
2. To design and carry out vocational training aimed at the development of business-oriented culture in each learner and at the valorization of one’ s own natural abilities.
3. To valorize diploma –holders and graduates by training them towards a qualified professional performance in the fields of organization,administration and finance.
4. To valorize professional figures by means of completion and up-to-dating of one’s own profile through a wide range of specialized  training,masters ,interships ,work  experiences.

Wouter Van den Berghe is currently research director of the Belgian Road Safety Institute. During most of his career he was an independent researcher and consultant, where he was much involved in the education and training sector, both nationally and internationally. Wouter is the author of tens of publicly available studies, reports, several of which have been translated into several languages.

Wouter Van den Berghe has undertaken numerous research and consulting assignments in the field of education and training, including several studies for Cedefop, the European Commission and the European Training Foundation. Other clients in this area have been foundations, higher education institutions, ministries of education, schools and training centres. He is the author of the book "Achieving Quality in Training".

Wouter also undertook research and consulting in other fields, mainly for non-profit organisations. He is an expert in relation to the design of performance and quality indicators and now focuses on road safety issues, including the education and training dimension.

Born in Madrid (Spain) in 1969. He earned his Agricultural Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and his Master's Degree in Industrial Company Management from the Ramón Llull University of Barcelona.

He has developed his career at Nestlé, within the technical area, and has taken growing responsibilities in the Quality and Production fields in different factories of the group, in Spain and Portugal.

He has been in charge of the introduction of quality, food safety and work safety and health and environment management systems for all Iberian factories in Nestlé. He has managed the factories of the group in Miajadas (tomato sauces) and Araia (ice-creams). He has been Corporate Responsible for Work Safety and Health. Currently, he is the Institutional Affairs Director in Nestlé Spain, where he has been working for the last three years. In this field, he holds different positions in several trade associations of the Food and Drink Sector both in Spain and at European level.

Ernesto Villalba is an expert at the European Center for the Development of Vocational Education and Training (Cedefop) since 2011 working on European transparency tools and principles. He was in charge of the 2014 update of the European Inventory on validation of non-formal and informal learning, a regularly updated overview of validation practices across Europe, and is currently working on the 2016 update. He also provides input on the issue of validation to the EQF Advisory Group of the European Commission and is working with the Commission in the follow up of the Recommendation of 2012 on validation, including an update of the European Guidelines on validation. During 2012 he worked in the development of the European Skills passport and in a prototype of a tool for recording non-formal and informal learning experiences within the Europass framework. Before joining Cedefop he worked as a scientific officer at the Center for Research on Lifelong Learning (CRELL) at the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, Ispra, Italy. He has several publications relating to European policies and especially concerning the measurement of cross-curricula competences. He is in the editorial board of the Journal of business creativity and the creative economy and the International Journal of Creativity and Human Development, and has served in different committees and working groups. Currently he is involved in the European Commission TWG on transversal skills and in the European Qualification Framework Advisory Group. He holds a Ph.D. in International and Comparative Education from Stockholm University.

Jane joined NZQA in July 2013 as Deputy Chief Executive, Quality Assurance.  The Quality Assurance Division is responsible for:

• Making rules in regard to qualifications, programmes and training schemes that apply across the tertiary education sector
• Registering private training establishments
• Accrediting and quality assuring non- university tertiary education
• administering the New Zealand Qualifications Framework
• administering the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students

Prior to joining NZQA Jane led Policy, Strategy and Research at the Department of Corrections for seven years and led tertiary education policy for the Ministry of Education for ten years. Earlier in her career Jane was on the staff of the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and Auckland University and also worked on global climate change and held positions conducting research on alcohol problems, family violence and child abuse.

Siegfried graduated as Master of Educational Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, specialised in the relation between education and work, and the training of teachers. He started working at CINOP, nowadays an independent social enterprise,  more than 25 years ago as senior consultant dealing with various topics, such as up streaming from VET to higher education, quality assurance for private training providers, social inclusions, entrepreneurship, international mobility. Since 1998 he is a programme manager in the EU programmes Leonardo da Vinci, Lifelong Learning and nowadays Erasmus+ where he is dealing in the National Agency with VET and Adult education and involved in NCP ECVET, national team of ECVET experts, NRF EQAVET, Europass, National Coordinator Adult Education, EPALE, ELGPN, Euroguidance. He is a member of the Dutch steering group for internationalisation of VET chaired by the Dutch Ministry. Since 2015 he dropped his responsibilities as director to turn his strategic expertise into added value.

Loukas Zahilas is Head of the Department for VET Systems and Institutions at Cedefop. He studied Chemistry and ICT and has a PhD in educational policies (qualifications frameworks). After a six-year stint in the pharmaceutical industry, he has concentrated his efforts entirely on education and training. His more than 20 years of professional experience in VET were mainly acquired at the Greek Ministry of Education, the University of Athens and since 2006 at Cedefop.