The Human Capital & Employment Unit (JRC-B4) provides expertise and qualitative and quantitative analyses in the field of education and training, skills and employment. Following from the digital and green transition, the Unit is doing research on (1) adapting and modernising EU education and training systems and make them fit for the digital age, (2) tackling the changing nature of work and employment, and (3) addressing 21st century skills required for future jobs and for participation in society.

Research Team

CARDET – Centre for the Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology. www.cardet.org. CARDET is the leading research and development centre in the Mediterranean region with global expertise in education, digital skills, and capacity building. As the largest independent non-profit centre based in Cyprus, CARDET has completed more than 400 projects relating to education, inclusion, new technologies, gamification, digital skills, upskilling pathways, innovation, and entrepreneurship. CARDET brings together an international team of experts with decades of global expertise in education research and development. Members of our team, board of directors, and advisory board have served in high profile positions for organisations like UNESCO, Commonwealth of Learning, OECD, Google, and the American Educational Research Association. CARDET is a formal member of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, and the ambassador and focal point for EPALE (Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe) in Cyprus. In partnership with EAEA, CARDET is developing the lifelong learning strategy for Cyprus 2021-2027.

Charalambos Vrasidas is the coordinator and senior scientist for this study. He is co-founder and Executive Director of CARDET, an international non-profit research and development organization based in Cyprus with partners from around the world. He is Professor of Learning Innovations & Policy and Associate Dean for elearning at the University of Nicosia. He serves on the Executive Committee of the International Council for Educational Media. During the last 25 years he coordinated more than 300 initiatives implemented in more than 40 countries. He leads large scale digital learning, social inclusion, and policy experiments around Europe. He is Editor-in-Chief for the scholarly journal Educational Media International.

JRC Team

Yves Punie is senior scientist and Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Seville, Unit Human Capital and Employment. He is leading its research and policy activities on "Digital Learning and Skills". The research area started in 2005 with the aim to provide evidence-based policy support to the European Commission on harnessing the potential of digital technologies to innovate education and training practices, improve access to lifelong learning and to deal with the rise of new (digital) skills and competences needed for employment, personal development and social inclusion. Recent work on capacity building for the digital transformation of education and learning, and for the changing requirements for skills and competences has focussed on the development of digital competence frameworks for citizens (DigComp), educators (DigCompEdu), educational organisations (DigCompOrg) as well as frameworks on Personal, Social and Learning to Learn (LifeComp) and entrepreneurship (EntreComp). Before joining the JRC in 2001, he was interim Assistant Professor at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). He holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences.

César Herrero Ramila is a scientific researcher at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Seville. He contributes to research and policy support in the field of "Human Capital and Employment". His work is focused on school's digital capacity and readiness. César is part of the SELFIE team, working to help schools reflect on how they use digital technologies to support learning. He is also involved in developing SELFIE for work-based learning contexts and the research line on digital learning for inclusion of migrants and refugees. He holds a Ph.D in Education, a Master Degree and Degree in Education.

DG EMPL Team

Dennis van Gessel works as a Policy Officer for the European Commission (DG Employment). He is working on several EU tools and instruments to better document and map skills and qualifications, for example on the skills of migrants with the dedicated tool for this purpose, the EU Skills Profile Tool for Third Country Nationals. Until 2017 he worked as an advisor for the Ministry of Education in the Netherlands, primarily dealing with VET- and early school leaving analyses. Previously he worked several years for the national statistical bureaus of Canada and the Netherlands and obtained Master degrees in International Economics and European Governance at Universities in the Netherlands and the UK.

Research Team οf Second Study Research Team of the First Study