Speakers

Anna Barbieri is Policy officer in the Unit for vocational education and training (VET) in the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission. She is responsible for stakeholders' relations, the implementation of the 2020 Council Recommendation on Vocational Education and Training, and she works also on Erasmus+ for the VET sector.

Anna previously worked on the Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission as well as in the private sector in Italy and Belgium before joining the European Institutions.

Document:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jPufHVu1_4gx_nqd9Sohk4Rt8IpIs7P1/view?usp=sharing

Flavia Colonnese is a Senior Research Manager in the Policy and Research Division of Ecorys. She has over 6 years of professional experience in policy, advocacy and research, with a focus on children and youth, employment, and social inclusion.

She has worked with several civil society organisations at the EU and international level, including advocacy platforms working with and for children and young people. At Ecorys, Flavia has worked on several evaluations on behalf of the European Commission, including the evaluation of the evaluation of the EU Council Recommendation on Upskilling Pathways. Flavia is also part of the core team supporting the European Commission with the implementation of the Pact for Skills initiative, with a focus on increasing Pact members’ knowledge on key issues and topics related to upskilling and reskilling, through mutual learning and the development of relevant tools and resources.

José Pilar graduated in English Studies at the University of Barcelona. He has worked as a teacher for 8 years, holding different positions at an Adult Education training centre.

During his professional career, he has been a training coordinator, a quality coordinator, Head of department, Head of Studies and Principal. At present, he is the head of the Lifelong Education Service at the Regional Ministry of Education of the Government of Catalonia as well as an EPALE ambassador.

Born and bred in Italy, with a true European vocation, Giulia is Director - Secretary General at the European Vocational Training Association-EVTA, based in Brussels. She has been working for EVTA since June 2013, in charge of the development and implementation of the network’s strategy. She gained an in-depth knowledge of European policies on VET, especially focused on topics related to internationalisation by carrying out several concrete activities to boost excellence and quality in the training provision.

Holding a master degree in International Relations and Diplomatic Affairs at University of Bologna, and an executive master in Management of International Organisations at the Solvay Business School. Before moving to Belgium, she enriched her life experiences by studying and working in France, United Kingdom, Malta, and Albania.

Enthusiastic member and representative of the VET4EU2 platform, she has acquired expertise on internationalisation and mobility of VET providers by contributing as a speaker in different EU and national events and by leading the implementation of different EU funded projects on the topic.

Rafel Castaño has been an IT and Computer Science teacher in the Catalan public VET System since September 2006 and has held different roles in the Catalan Regional Administration.

In January 2020, he started working as a Technical Advisor in the DUAL Unit at the Department of Education of the Government of Catalonia, where he is actively involved in the internationalization project for the Catalan Dual VET System. Within the same Unit, he is also the Assistant Project Manager of the "Prospection of companies for the Dual VET System" project, which is managed by the same Administration.

Alicia Gabán Barrio joined EARLALL as a Communications and Project manager. In her role, she is responsible for EARLALL's communications strategy and for the communications activities of the LCAMP: Learner Centric Advanced Manufacturing Platform for CoVEs project, among others. Prior to this, she worked for a wide variety of EU Associations in the media, business, education, and environment sectors. In particular, Alicia worked for the European Forum of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (EfVET) where she gained a good understanding of European VET and Lifelong Learning policies and EU project management. Alicia holds a Master's degree in New Media from the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB, Belgium) and a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain). She speaks fluently Spanish, English, and French.

Maria Pascual is currently working as an International and Institutional Relations Officer at the Directorate General for Vocational Education and Training of the Regional Government of Catalonia.