Youth in education, youth in employment – Boosting European policies for social inclusion

Michał Drozdowicz has served since 2020 as I Counsellor and Head of the Social Policy, Employment and Equal Opportunities Section at the Permanent Representation of Poland to the European Union in Brussels. Previously, he held senior positions at the Polish Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, including as Deputy Director, contributing over 20 years of expertise in EU social security coordination, EU labour migration legislation and social policy and social inclusion.

Jürgen Siebel joined Cedefop from the private sector in September 2019. As Executive Director, he is responsible for managing the Agency’s operations in accordance with the strategic direction of its tripartite Management Board.

Brigitte van den Berg is a Dutch member of European parliament and works on different topics such as social affairs, industry, housing, and education.

Ms Van den Berg used to work as a deputy mayor in the Netherlands and now works on approaching societal challenges from the EU perspective.

One of her priorities in the European Parliament, is to create more recognition for VET students and experts.

In this light, she also focusses on reskilling and upskilling, encouraging young people to find their interests and ambitions, and making sure they have ways of achieving these.

Anthie (PhD) is a Cedefop expert working on VET policies and systems, and quality assurance. She has contributed to Cedefop’s work on VET teachers’ and trainers’ professional development, early leaving from education and training, young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs), and VET policy monitoring, analysis and reporting. Anthie has a multidisciplinary academic background with studies in translation, communication, adult education and natural language processing (NLP). Her research interests focus equally on domain and methodology aspects, including the complementarity of mixed social research methods with NLP approaches in VET. 

Irene Psifidou is the VET for Youth - Teachers and trainers team facilitator at the Cedefop’s department for VET and Skills. In her 20-year service as an expert at Cedefop, Irene is leading the Agency’s work on inclusion and excellence. She oversees Cedefop’s new European VET teachers Survey, the creator of the ‘VET toolkit for tackling early leaving’ as well as the ‘VET toolkit for empowering NEETs’, and the coordinator of Cedefop’s European virtual community of ambassadors. 

She also co-manages a new research project on Digital skills for tomorrow: promoting inclusive excellence in VET to map and assess the current landscape of digital skills provision by employing natural language processing (NLP) techniques.

Besides coordinating services with numerous local stakeholders to guarantee a solid support network for disadvantaged clients seeking to enhance their employability level and enter the labour market, Juan has led various ERASMUS+ projects aimed at upskilling Jobsplus staff and introducing new services within the organisation. Juan is the project leader for the Jobsplus ALMA programme and @Work4NEETs within the Interreg Europe framework.

A people-oriented psychologist with extensive experience in initiating, planning, and conducting research from inception to completion. At the Educational Research Institute - National Research Institute, she has been engaged for many years in both social and educational research, as well as implementation projects related to lifelong learning and the situation of students with special educational needs. 

Kati Marin works as an expert and developer in the field of lifelong learning. She holds a Master’s degree in Education, is a qualified teacher, and is soon to complete her Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA). In her expert role at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, she develops various innovative solutions to support lifelong learning. These solutions aim to respond to the evolving needs of working life and individuals. Her development work takes place both within national higher education networks and in the EU context. New insights emerge through collaboration of diverse ideas.

Michail Papazoglou is an expert in quantitative research and data analysis with over a decade of experience in advanced computational methods for policy support at both international and national level. He holds a BSc in Statistics, MA in Social Statistics and a PhD in Applied Econometrics and Impact Evaluation. He joined Cedefop in February 2024 as an expert working on VET for youth, teachers and trainers focusing on data-driven insights to inform policy decisions. 

Oscar Pasquali is the CEO of Generation Italy, a non-profit foundation launched by McKinsey & Company. He focuses on topics such as education, training, the future of work, social impact. Currently at Generation, which he helped establish in Italy, he pursues a dual mission: supporting young people in acquiring the skills needed to enter the workforce and assisting businesses in identifying qualified and motivated personnel. 

Raffaela Kihrer is Secretary General of the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA). She is also the elected Secretary General of the European Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLPlatform), which brings together all education sectors at the European level and is the central point of contact between European civil society and the European institutions. She has a background in international development studies and is also a trained teacher in secondary and adult education. She is passionate about learning and takes every opportunity to visit adult education initiatives, especially at the grassroots level, and to reflect on what is needed to enable even more adults to participate.

Sabina Casini is a senior adviser @BDA - Confederation of German Employers’ Associations. She has been responsible for EU education policies including vocational education and training since 2014. Her specialisation is in human resources development and corporate wellbeing. She holds a MA in European Governance from Siences Po Grenoble (France) as well as a BA in European Studies from the University of Osnabrück (Germany).

Stefanie Ledermaier joined Cedefop as an expert in March 2024, as part of the VET for Youth team and focusing on the topic of NEETs. She holds master's degrees in labour economics and European studies and is currently pursuing her MBA. Stefanie brings over 10 years of experience in the EU labour market sphere, having previously worked for two other EU agencies and serving as a social affairs attachée for her home country, Austria.

Yves Magnan has been working in the bank sector for about 15 years, in particular in the credit and debit cards sector.

During this period, he held several managerial posts. He joined the Public Employment Service in Wallonia (Forem) in 2003, where he first served as manager of a vocational training centre.