Speakers
Mr Angel Luis Miguel, General Director, Directorate General for Vocational Education and Training of the Regional Government of Catalonia
More than 35 years experience working in vocational education as a vocational teacher in Communications Electronics, as well as principal of Institut Pere Martell in Tarragona. He has also worked as a teacher trainer and vocational teaching materials writer. At present time, he holds the position of General Director, Directorate General for Vocational Education and Training of the Regional Government of Catalonia. His experience and expertise in vocational education was recognised in 2007 by the Catalan Council of Vocational Training.
Mrs Clara Bassols Rheinfelder, Director, Bertelsmann Foundation
Clara Bassols Rheinfelder has been the Director of the Fundación Bertelsmann, a subsidiary of the German Foundation Bertelsmann Stiftung, since 2015. Under the motto "For Youth Employment", the Fundación Bertelsmann is devoted to two complementary projects. Through the 1st project, Career Guidance Project, it supports schools with counselling, tools, and methodologies for the vocational guidance of teenagers, on the one hand. On the other hand, it promotes Companies to bring the professional and educational world closer together to improve guidance opportunities to young people. The 2nd project aims to contribute with quality dual vocational training in Spain. The Fundación Bertelsmann has promoted and leads the "Alliance for Dual Vocational Training", a network that has more than 1,500 members including companies, schools and other institutions committed to the introduction and dissemination of quality Dual Vocational Training in Spain.
Prior to joining the Fundación Bertelsmann, Clara Bassols worked for many years as an employment lawyer in various international law firms and in a multinational corporate group, where she held various responsibilities in the legal and HR departments.
Mr John Fortune, Vice President for the Southern Region in the Union of Students in Ireland (USI)
John Fortune is the current Vice President for the Southern Region in the Union of Students in Ireland. He is a new member of the European Apprentices Network, representing Ireland. He represents 7 Higher Education Institutions across Ireland consisting of 1 University, 2 Technological Universities, 2 Institutes of Technology and one 1 College. The region has over 60,000 students from various backgrounds. He is a former two term President and one term Deputy President for Education in Waterford Institute of Technology Students' Union.
Ms Chiara Riondino, Head of Unit, DG EMPL, European Commission
Chiara Riondino is the head of unit in charge of VET, Apprenticeships and Adult Learning at the European Commission. She is responsible for working together with Member States, social partners and stakeholders to develop and implement policies that help people develop the skills they need in life and on the labour market, and to improve the effectiveness, quality and attractiveness of vocational education and training and adult learning. Chiara has previously worked as policy coordinator for employment policies and policy assistant to the Director for Employment in the Commission. In this context, she focused mainly on employment opportunities and challenges in the changing world of work, active labour market policies and fair working conditions. She also worked more broadly on taking forward the European Pillar on Social Rights. Before joining the Commission, Chiara worked in both the private and the public sector, including as Head of Unit in the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Caridad is a Board Member of OBESSU. She is currently studying social education and with the goal of helping to better the educational system.
Mr Michael Teutsch, Head of Unit for Schools and Multilingualism, DG Education and Culture
Ms Maria Pascual, Directorate General for Vocational Education and Training of the Regional Government of Catalonia
She has got vast knowledge and experience in the management and coordination of European projects in the frame of different EU programmes and initiatives, as well as, the coordination of different initiatives for the internationalisation of institutions. From 2009, up until 2021, Project manager and Head of the Unit of International Programmes and Projects relations at the Directorate General for Vocational Education and Training of the Regional Government of Catalonia. Currently, working as International and institutional Relations Officer at Directorate General for Vocational Education and Training of the Regional Government of Catalonia.
Mr Ignacio de Benito, Senior project manager, Fundación Bertelsmann, Spain
Since 2005, he has held different positions of responsibility in a wide range of institutions, both public and private, in the area of training and employment projects, aimed mainly at youngsters. At the moment, and since 2014, he works as Senior Project Manager at Fundación Bertelsmann, co-leading the national Project, called “Alianza para la FP Dual” and coordinating the area of projects implemented in Andalusia. The Fundación Bertelsmann works, under the slogan “For the youth employment”, in order to develop and boost the Dual VET’s model in Spain and improve the career guidance of our youngsters.
Mr José A. Andrés Villena, Deputy Director, Directorate General for Vocational Education and Training of the Regional Government of Catalonia.
From 1981 until 2012, automotive engineering vocational teacher at Institut Esteve Terradas Institute in Cornellà, where he also had different responsibilities and roles, including those of head of Studies and Deputy Director for Vocational Education and Training. From 2005 to 2012, he participated, becoming its Head, in the Quality and Continuous Improvement Project at the Directorate General for Vocational Education and Training of the Regional Government of Catalonia.Since then up until now, he holds the position of Deputy Director of the Sub-directorate of Programmes and Projects for Vocational Education and Training.
Mr Scott Kelly, National Society of Apprentices, United Kingdom
Scott Kelly comes from Glasgow, Scotland. He is in the 4th year of his vocational education, and has been working with the National Society of Apprentices for just over 2 years. NSOA has worked on improving mental health policy for apprentices, and promoting a real living wage.
Ms Melissa Luck, dbb Jugend, Germany
Melissa is 21 years old, originally from
Thuringia in Germany. After graduating in 2016 from secondary education, she
was an apprentice at the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit
(BA)) until 2019. Melissa became a member of the vbba trade union in 2017.
Since 2019 she has been part of the Youth and Trainees‘ Representative Council
of Thuringia / Saxony-Anhalt within the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, and
nationwide within BA since 2020, and is the regional youth leader for Thuringia
within the union.
Ms Uliana Musakina, SAKKI ry, Finland
Uliana was a vocational student within the Finnish establishment Gradia and board member of the National Union of Vocational Students in Finland. During her 2.5 year-long studies she participated in two different types of Finnish apprenticeships – the on-job-learning and "young entrepreneurship" apprenticeships. Most of her experiences with apprenticeships have been positive and shaped her, despite some difficulties encountered during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ms Trine Kjeldsen Johannsen, EEO, Denmark
Trine is a 20-year-old student from Denmark at her 3rd year of Technical High School. At her school, a high level natural science is combined with practical education within a topic of choice. She has chosen to work with product development and textile production. Within the last 2 years Trine has been a part of the leadership of The Danish Vocational and Technical School Students Union, where she has been the spokesperson for Technical High School Students and now the International Officer.
Mr Norbert Schöbel, Team Leader, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission
Ms Alexia Carrasco Miro, Project Manager, Fundación Bertelsmann
Alexia graduated in Law and Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, with an international exchange program at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a legal master’s degree in International Human Rights Law in the United Kingdom. She has experience working on socio-economic aspects both in Belgium and Spain. Since 2017, she is a Project Manager at Fundación Bertelsmann, where she promotes the Dual Vocational Education and Training’s model in the Spanish country, within the “Alianza para la FP Dual” Project.
Ms Arja Krauchenberg, Vice-president, Lllp Lifelong Learning Platform
As mother of three, Arja has been actively involved in parents’ representation in the schools attended by her children. She started to engage in the regional parents’ association and was later elected member of the board of the European Parents’ Association (EPA) where she served as president 2018-19 and is currently engaged as project coordinator. In 2020 she also joined the executive committee of OIDEL (an INGO that promotes the right to education). She has been a member of the Steering Committee of Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) since 2019. In May 2021 she also became a member of the executive board of EUFIC (European Food and Industry Council).
He is an Electrical Engineer with over 30
years utility experience in many countries with ESB International and ESB
Networks. He's also a Science graduate with a
number of years spent teaching technical subjects to students in several
counties. His role now is Technical Training &
Development Manager with ESB Networks, the power transmission and
distribution system owner in Ireland. They are responsible for the technical
training & development of staff, apprentices and contractors.
Interests include: innovative and
engaging ways to deliver training, delivering our 2030/2050 EU
Sustainability targets and working with other training centres in the EU
to share experiences in doing this.
Mr Recep Atar, Coordinator-in-project, Hak-Is Trade Union Confederation
He is a Project Expert within the Project Implementation and Coordination Unit of the HAK-IS Trade Union Confederation. He has been responsible for follow-up grant calls, seeking for partners, preparation and submission of project application forms, management of the project activities, risk assessment and management, finalising, reporting and sustaining the project activities.
HAK-IS Confederation was founded on 18 October 1976 in Ankara. It is the 2nd biggest trade union confederation in Turkey with its around 660,000 members in 20 sectors such as public services, metal, food, tourism, forestry, finance, textile, transportation, energy, security etc. At the present, HAK-IS has 22 sectoral unions together with 657.365 workers/members in Turkey and one union from Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).
Mr Joan Daniel Subirats Armengol, coord. of QA and dual VETat INS Comte de Rius(Tarragona)
Mr Joan Carles Ballesté Coma, dual VET tutor at INS Escola del Treball (Lleida)
Mr Matthäus Fandrejewski, President of CESI-Youth, the youth branch of the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI) and member of the European Apprentices Networks (EAN)
In this capacity Matthäus is organising the activities of the Youth platform which was established in 2013 when youth unemployment in Europe was at its highest point. Since then he has been active in developing and pushing forward youth policies within CESI and other European institutions. Furthermore, he was involved in the organization of several events in order to give CESI’s young affiliates a place to be heard.
Mr Baptiste Bouyer, Head of Representation and Institutions Relations Department at ANAF (National Association for French apprentices)