Mind the gaps

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.

He was the co-rapporteur of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the largest financial instrument created by the European Union for the economic recovery of the Union after the pandemic and pushed for the creation of the social and children & youth pillars of the RRF.

As Chair of the EMPL Committee, Mr Pîslaru has spearheaded efforts to address pressing social and employment challenges facing the European Union. His leadership has been instrumental in fostering dialogue among MEPs, policymakers, and stakeholders to develop policies that prioritize children and youth, skills development, job creation and social inclusion.

Dragoș has been a strong supporter of the Child Guarantee and he is leading the Working Group on monitoring the implementation of Children Guarantee of the Parliament, a new permanent entity of the European Parliament.

He has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to championing the interests of youth and working towards a brighter future for the next generation, influencing EU legislation and the European Year of Youth in 2022.

Dragoș holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a PhD in Economics from the National Institute of Economic Research, within the Romanian Academy.

Mr Pîslaru has been named the second most influential MEP on social policies (EU Matrix, 2023) and the most influential MEP on economic policies (VoteWatch.eu, 2020).

Mr Röpke headed the Brussels office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) and  took on several senior positions including as ÖGB representative to the EU institutions, the Executive Committee of the ETUC, and an advisory member of the ÖGB federal executive board. Mr Röpke has a legal background and holds a law degree from the University of Vienna.

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.

In 2019 she was awarded the “Outstanding Public Social Intrapraneur of the Year Award” by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2021 she was included as ‘One of the top 100 women in social enterprise in 2021’ by Euclid Network.

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.

He was Chief Economist at the Ministry of Finance and head of the Policy Analysis Unit which he helped to stablish. Gonzalo designed the current fiscal rule in place in Slovenia and contributed to a government’s debt portfolio management strategy leading to a substantial lower debt service costs. He was senior economist at the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development. He was consultant at the International Monetary Fund working on monetary policy implementation (Washington), and United Nations Development Program.

He has held various positions in professional bodies. He is currently member of the social Protection Committee’ s Minimum Income Network. He was head of the Slovene delegation to the Output Gap working group of the Council of Europe. He led the Slovene delegation to the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) of the Council of Europe and was Chairman of the EPC’s Labor Market Working Group. He was member of BRUEGEL steering committee (Brussels-based think tank). He represented Slovenia in the Sub-Committee on IMF issues of the Economic and Financial Committee of the Council of Europe and He was member of the ad-hoc FSC - Ageing & Financial Markets devoted to the analysis and implications of ageing populations for financial markets. He was delegate to the Economic Policy Committee and Working Party No1. at the OECD.

He holds a master’s degree from Columbia University (MIA), New York and master’s degree in Economics from El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City.

In 1994, she joined the National Institute for Adult Education (Andragoški center Slovenije) and led a project of study circles.

In 1998, she accepted the position of assistant director and head of the in-service department at the Institute of Education of the Republic of Slovenia.

During this time, she also completed her doctoral studies in management in education. In 2003, she joined the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, where she is still employed.

She has been the head of the Department for Adult Education for 5 years and since 2012 head of the Department for Upper Secondary Education.

She knows the field of vocational education and adult education from the point of view of the provider, professional expert, and systemic point of view.

She was also a member of the working group at INES at the OECD for several years and currently is a member of AG EQF, AC VT, and DG VT on the EU level.

She has worked on issues such as gender equality, outreach, validation, life skills, benefits of lifelong learning and many more. She believes in adult learning and education as a central instrument to shape Europe’s future in a positive way and is enthusiastic in advocating for strong adult education communities, structures, policies and civil society.

She joined the Commission in 2005 and has worked in the Directorate General for Climate Action for 13 years, first on policy development and implementation of the EU Emission Trading System and then on the EU overall climate action strategies and the economic analysis underpinning them.

She started her career in the French government working on town planning and water resources. She has a broad experience in the development and implementation of public policies designed to manage scarce resources.

A French national, she holds academic degrees from the Strasbourg political science institute and ESSEC (Ecole supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales) business school.

Right kind on skill-set has become a major issue for many companies that are renewing their businesses - many times in a very disruptive environment. How to keep up with the development? Traditional education systems are built for a more rigid environment.

The task of Riikka Heikinheimo at EK is to follow and influence the politics and legislation in order to develop the Finnish public education and RD&I systems and private practices to meet the skill challenges such as green and digital transition.

Through her long practical experience in research and innovation strategies and implementation, combined with funding and management experience, she has developed a passion and a deep understanding for the nature and needs of a successful and productive education system and RD&I process.

Riikka Heikinheimo has a long experience as an executive director in both national public funding organizations and she has  been a chair/member of many planning or advisory boards/committees developing different strategies related to education, research and innovations both at national and at European level and also at international level. She also serves several boards as a chair or a member.

His thematic expertise includes quality assurance in VET and international qualifications.

His expertise is in labour economics, education economics, and industrial relations. Ilias has published articles in various top-ranking journals.

His published research covers the areas of labour economics and the economics of education. He has also published research in the areas of industrial relations, small business economics, regional economics, and the economics of constitutional change in Ireland. He is a research fellow in the Institute of Labour Studies (IZA) in the University of Bonn and an Adjunct Professor in the department of economics at Trinity College Dublin.

She holds a master's degree in international relations and Diplomatic Affairs at University of Bologna, and an executive master's in management of international Organisations at the Solvay Business School.

El Iza holds a PhD in Economics, MBA in International Business and a BA in Economics.

He attended Keele University in the UK and holds a PhD in Industrial relations and human resource management, focusing on a comparative study of the demand for EU migrant workers in Sweden and the UK.

He also holds an MA in European industrial relations and human resource management, and a BA in Human geography and human resource management.

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 VET).

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.  

The Department work encompasses a wide range of research and policy analysis in two Cedefop strategic areas of operation, namely skills and labour market and learning and employability.

An economist by training, Antonio has taught regional economics at the University of Rome since 2002. He also lectured at the National High School of Public Administration on cost-benefit analysis and public expenditure.

Prior to joining Cedefop, in 2010, he was Head of Research and Studies at the public services authority of the Municipality of Rome. Until 2007, he was Head of Area at CLES, an independent centre of studies on labour market and economic development based in Rome.

He was been involved in the preparation of Cedefop's ESJS2 and is currently Co-Principal Investigator in the project "Digital Disruption and the Future of Work: Reimagining Education, Skills and Employability" an in international research programme dedicated to understanding the future prospects for human augmentation, social inclusion and shared prosperity, funded by Skills Futures Singapore.

He has previously undertaken a large number of research projects on education issues for European institutions (the European Commission, European Parliament, Cedefop), the OECD, UNESCO, national governments internationally, think-tanks and third sector organisations. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Education and Work and an Executive Editor of the British Journal of Sociology of Education.

From 2017 to 2022 she was a representative for Europe on the WorldSkills Champions Trust, a group of past competitors that work together to expand the WorldSkills movement and promote the importance of skills. She is also an entrepreneur, running her own graphic design business.

Prior to joining DI Anja held positions in the Danish Parliament and the Ministry of Education as adviser on European affairs and Education.

She holds an MA in Law from University of Aarhus and a postgraduate Degree in International Relations from University of Amsterdam.

He has a master degree in quantitative and general economics and holds a Ph.d. in social sciences.

As a researcher and project manager at the Dutch research centre for education and the labour market (ROA) Jasper led research projects on labour market issues, skills, employability and obsolescence of knowledge.

He also worked on HRD and HRM, taking an economic perspective to human resources issues. Jasper started working for Cedefop in 2007. He led the centre’s early work on skill mismatch, coordinated the centre’s work on national VET systems and policies for several years, and led the centre’s skills governance work.

She has a PhD in adult education and has co-authored and published several articles on the transformation of learning in transitions to the 4th industrial revolution.

From June 2023 onwards, Ludovic is responsible of ETUC area of work for an economy that works for the people and the planet. He will thus fight for a sustainable economic model, a reform of the economic governance and the EU Semester, fair taxation and an EU fiscal capacity and EU funds fit for the twin transitions. He will follow just transition, climate, energy and industrial policies as well policies of upskilling and reskilling of the workforce. He will also try to conclude the trade union fight for an ambitious Platform Work Directive.

He joined Cedefop in 2006 working initially as a senior expert on qualifications and the common EU tools and as of 2014 he is Head of the Department for VET and Qualifications.

He is a member of Cedefop’s management team and his department’s work is based on research and analyses providing evidence on policy developments and implementation as well as advice and support at European level.

It covers the Cedefop strategic area of ‘Shaping VET and Qualifications’ aiming at improving the overall transparency, relevance, quality and inclusiveness of VET by facilitating close interaction between initial VET, continuous VET and general and higher education to serve the skills needs of all age groups at all levels.