2023 has been designated the European Year of Skills. The year puts people and their human capital in the spotlight. Recognizing the importance of the link between human capital and development, the EU has committed to supporting skills development at all stages of the skills formation process: by widening access to high-quality initial education and by supporting participation in adult learning in a lifelong perspective. Developing human capital produces a range of benefits for workers, employers, sectors, regions, and societies more widely. However, many of these benefits only fully materialize when skills are effectively used in workplaces: what happens in organisations to stimulate utilisation of skills crucially matters.
A joint report by EU agencies Eurofound and Cedefop uses the 2019 European Company Survey (ECS 2019) to show that managerial approaches cultivating skills utilisation are associated with improved establishment performance. Such approaches are driven by an organisational culture that values employees as an asset to the organisation. At this first Cedefop European Year of Skills Virtual Get Together, the two agencies showcased why workplace wellbeing is central to the mechanism linking human capital utilisation to business outcomes and helped make the case for people-centred managerial approaches.
Video recording
The video recording of the webinar can be watched from here.
(By following the link, the YouTube privacy policy and cookies will apply)
Agenda
Times are indicated in CET.
| 15.00 – 15.15 | Opening and welcome by Jürgen Siebel (Cedefop Executive Director) and Ivailo Kalfin (Eurofound Executive Director) |
| 15.15 – 15.35 | What does it take to make the most out of skills in organisations? Presentation by Gijs van Houten (Eurofound), Michele Consolini (Eurofound), and Giovanni Russo (Cedefop) |
| 15.35 – 15.55 | Q&A |
| 15.55 – 16.30 |
Panel discussion moderated by Jasper van Loo (Cedefop) with
|
Speakers
Jürgen Siebel ,Executive Director of Cedefop, 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.
View more
Jürgen has a background in human-resources management with particular emphasis on learning and education. In this context he has also collaborated with institutional actors in the vocational education and training space at national, European and global levels.
Jürgen earned his MSc in economics at the University of Hamburg, and a PhD in business administration from the University of Vienna.
Ivailo Kalfin is Executive Director of Eurofound since June 2021.
He has a long experience related to the EU integration. Prior to assuming his current position, he served as Minister for Labour and Social Policy (2014-2016) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005-2009), both times being also Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
View more
Ivailo was elected 4 times Member of Parliament and once Member of the European Parliament (2009-2014).
He was also Director of the Economy and International Relations Institute and earlier on - Economic Policy Secretary to the President of Bulgaria.
Ivailo's main expertise is in the area of employment and social policy, public budgets, including the budget of the EU and EU relations with the neighbouring countries.
Michele Consolini works as a research officer in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound.
He mostly provide quantitative expertise on projects on quality of life, social cohesion and convergence, as well as survey management. His current research involves analysing the social impact of migration and the socioeconomic challenges of the transition to a carbon-neutral economy.
View more
He holds a BA in Sociology and Economics from the Alma Mater Studiorum in Bologna, Italy, and from Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Netherlands. He also completed a Research MSc in Communication Science from the University of Amsterdam, where he also worked as a teaching assistant and researcher.
Julie Fionda is Deputy Head of Unit for ‘Skills Agenda’ at the European Commission, Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.
As a British official, she has worked in the European Commission since 2002. Julie has a background in economics.
View more
From 2014 to 2018 she was a member of the Cabinet of Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility.
Earlier roles in the Commission have focused on higher education policy, on the European Semester of policy coordination, and on management of the European Social Fund.
Aline Hoffmann is Head of unit Europeanisation industrial relations and joined the ETUI in October 2012.
From 2001 until 2012 she was head of the European Works Councils Team at the headquarters of the German metal workers union IG Metall, working on issues of union policy towards central and group works councils as well as supervisory board representation.
View more
For 10 years she represented the IG Metall at the Company Policy Committee of what was then the European Metalworkers Federation (EMF). She was a member of the Supervisory Board at Bosch for 5 years. She is also the coordinator of the European Workers’ Participation Competence Centre (EWPCC).
After completing her BA in political economy at the University of California at Berkeley in 1993, she worked at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB). She then took a Masters degree in European Studies at the University of Cambridge, followed by a PhD from the University of Warwick.
Pär Lundström as a Senior Policy Advisor is an expert in all aspects of Skills Provision and has worked in this capacity with the City of Stockholm, the Association of Electricians and currently with The Swedish Installation Federation, which represents 3.700 companies that install, optimise and control heating, ventilation, water, electrical and telecommunications technology.
View more
Pär Lundström is also involved in the work EuropeOn and GCP Europe is doing concerning Skills4Climate. He is a member of the Cedefop Management Board and relevant working groups within the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.
He has a degree in political science from Uppsala University.
Frank Pot is emeritus professor of "Social innovation of work and employment" at Radboud University Nijmegen and honorary advisor of the European Workplace Innovation Network (EUWIN).
He is former director of TNO Work and Employment and had a chair by special appointment of "Work and technology" at Leiden University.
Giovanni Russo holds a position as Expert at Cedefop, where he works on the issues of skills development, skills mismatch, and skills utilisation. With a background in Labour and Behaviour Economics, he joined Cedefop in 2010, after more than 15 years of career in academia.
Previously he was Associate Professor at Utrecht University, Utrecht School of Economics. He has published in various international journals.
View more
He holds a PhD in Economics from the Free University of Amsterdam.
Gijs van Houten is a Senior Research Manager in Eurofound’s Employment unit with extensive expertise in cross-national survey methodology and the analysis of working conditions, workplace practices and organisational strategies. He currently mainly works on the analysis of the results of the 2019 and 2020 European Company Surveys and the preparation of the 2024 European Working Conditions Survey.
View more
Before joining Eurofound in 2010 he worked at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP). In 2016, he spent a year away working as an International Survey Methodologist at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC.
Gijs holds a Masters in sociology from Radboud University Nijmegen and a PhD in social science from Utrecht University.
Jasper Van Loo is coordinator of Cedefop’s department for VET and Skills.
He currently coordinates the labour market and skills analysis work of the agency. He is also part of the team investigating EU skills trends using online job vacancies.
View more
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.
Event details
Downloads
Contacts
