Towards lifelong learning – Future-proofing VET skills and competences

His area of research is formal linguistics, language acquisition and development and educational linguistics. He is the author of several books and over 100 articles and book chapters.

Until November 2015, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, at Universidade Nova and President of the Scientific Council of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Science and Technology Foundation.

He acted as member of the Scientific Council of the National Reading Plan, the National Commission of the International Institute for the Portuguese Language, and the Consulting Council of the Camões Institute. He was also President of the European Association of Linguistic Students (SOLE) and the Portuguese Linguistic Association.

Besides his teaching and research activities at his University, he has been a guest lecturer at several universities in Brazil, Macau, Spain and the Netherlands. He was Secretary of State of Education of the XXI Portuguese Government (2015-2019).

Before joining Cedefop in 2013, he has worked as a Deputy State Secretary and held other positions at the Latvian Ministry of Education and Science. Dmitrijs earned his master’s degree in economics and PhD in pedagogy at the University of Latvia.

In the project “Careers via competences” he and his colleagues develop, test and promote concepts and tools of competence assessment, development and recognition, for example via the #showyourskills initiative. After he hosted the 3rd international VPL Biennale in Berlin in 2019, Martin started working on a study analysing online job vacancies with respect to the labour market demand of transversal skills.

Martin received his PhD in Psychology from Jacobs University Bremen in 2009 after having studied in Marburg, Turin, and Detroit. He joined Bertelsmann Stiftung in 2012, after working for some years as an age management consultant and lecturer for statistics at Jacobs University and University of Bremen. Martin enjoys lifelong learning not only at work but also as a father of four daughters and as city council member for the Green Party in Gütersloh.

Currently and since 12 October 2020, she is the General Director of the General Directorate for Employment and Industrial Relations (Direção-Geral do Emprego e das Relações de Trabalho, DGERT). Therefore, she is responsible for supporting the planning of legislation and rules related to employment and professional training, and industrial relations and working conditions; ensuring the management and fostering of the Certification system of vocational education and training (VET) providers; monitoring the processes of conciliation of work conflicts. Previously, she was coordinator of the Legal Office of the António Sérgio Cooperative for the Social Economy - CIPRL (CASES).

Between 2011 and 2015, she performed duties as legal adviser of the Ministry for Economy and Employment, of the Ministry for Solidarity, Employment and Social Security and of the Secretary of State for Employment. She provided consultancy on matters of the Tripartite Agreement ‘Commitment for Growth, Competitiveness and Employment’ and at the Portuguese Tripartite Social Dialogue Committee in the fields of labour, employment and vocational training. Participated in the committee that drafted the sixth and the seventh revision of the Labour Law. She prepared and participated at the meetings with representatives from the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and European Commission within the MoU – ‘Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality’, in the fields of the labour market, employment and vocational training.

She has more than 10 years of professional experience working in the fields of vocational training, employment and labour. Since the beginning of her career in the public administration sector, she worked very closely with the ministerial cabinets. In these cabinets was responsible for matters of labour affairs and social conciliation, employment and vocational training. She has a long professional experience as a lawyer.

As Executive Director, he is responsible for managing the Agency’s operations in accordance with the strategic direction of its tripartite Management Board.

Before joining Cedefop, Jürgen served for more than 20 years as an HR manager with global governance or business-partner responsibilities at Siemens.

Jürgen earned his MSc in economics at the University of Hamburg, and a PhD in business administration from the University of Vienna.

His more than 27 years of professional experience in vocational education and training were mainly acquired at the Greek Ministry of Education, the University of Athens and Cedefop. He served for many years at various Directorate posts representing Greece in EU bodies and groups.

Loukas Zahilas joined Cedefop in 2006 working on qualifications and the common EU tools. Currently he is a member of Cedefop’s management team. His department’s work supports the EC, the Member States and social partners in fostering policy developments and accelerating the pace of VET reforms, focuses on strengthening cooperation to the further development and informs political discussions on the future of VET.