Ben Bruyndonckx is currently seconded by the Department of Work and Social Economy of the Flemish Community to Connectief. This is a foundation, bringing together all educational networks in Flanders and supporting actions that lead to a smooth transition of VET learners students to the labour market.

Ben is responsible for the coordination of a Flemish network of VET Schools, working on VET internationalization and organizing short term work placement mobilities for VET-students and staff via Erasmus+ within a project framework, provided by Connectief. Ben functions as the SPOC for and brooker between the Flemish and international partners of the various mobility activities. He used to work as a Pedagogical Counselor in SYNTRA Flanders focusing mainly on apprenticeship projects.  

Hester Zeeman-Hofstee is working at Nuffic. This is the National Agency on international education in the Netherlands. Hester has experience as an international coordinator in both higher education and VET.

Hester is part of a small dynamic team who are a knowledge partner for all VET schools in the Netherlands on: professionalising teachers through internationalisation, Internationalisation at Home, mobility and bilingual education.

Jamie de Vré is the project leader of the VR4VET project on behalf of ROCvA-F, the largest vocational education and training institution in the Netherlands. With extensive experience as a teacher, trainer, I-coach, and in international collaborations, Jamie has been dedicated to educational innovations and new technologies for many years. Currently, his focus lies on XR (Extended Reality) and Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, Jamie promotes open educational resources within vocational education. Together with his team, he develops these open educational materials in co-creation with teachers, students, and industry partners. Jamie is actively involved in the implementation of VR and other technologies in education.

For the VR4VET project, Jamie connects VR and AI both within his institution and at a national level, aiming to transform and modernize education through advanced technologies and collaborative efforts.

Javier Serrano Castilla holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Granada and an MBA from the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid. Since 2004, he has been a Business Administration teacher at a Vocational Training School, carrying out his teaching activities at IES La Zafra in Motril (Granada, Andalusia).

He combines this role with his position as the Andalusia Coordinator at the FPEmpresa Association of Spain, where he works to establish networks between vocational training centers, companies, and institutions.

Laura Koponen is a multidisciplinary pocket rocket from Jyväskylä, Finland.

She is currently working as a Project Specialist in the Digital Services department of Gradia Educational Consortium. Before that, she worked for several years as a vocational teacher at Gradia, and she also has years of experience as an entrepreneur in her own business.

As a Project Specialist, her role is to participate as a digital expert in various national and international projects, such as XR and AI projects. Her main tasks also include creating new learning environments enabled by digitalisation and helping Gradia employees to improve their digital skills and training them in the use of ICT. Laura enjoys giving something creative and inspiring to others to help them improve their pedagogy etc!

In the VR4VET project, among others, she acts as a group leader and trainer and has been involved in the development of pedagogically functional and gamified scenarios for the VR learning environment.

Norbert Ruepert has been involved in internationalisation of VET for more than 25 years both in the capacity as head of international office of ROC Midden Nederland, one of the largest colleges of vocational education and training in the Netherlands, and as representative in international networks such as EfVET, Radix and NAVE2.

As a winner of the Leonardo Quality Award in 2008 he is a recognized project leader of many international projects in Leonardo, Erasmus Plus and other international programmes also outside of Europe. As head of the international office of ROC MN he has been responsible for the developments of internationalisation at the college focusing on curriculum development, virtual exchanges, global citizenship and capacity building of teaching staff. He is also responsible for excellence programmes at the college aiming at ambitious students ands staff.

Oscar Prat van Thiel has been active in the field of vocational Education since 2016, participating and then directing Education Plus, the main vocational education summit and trade fair in China supported by the German Federal Government, Land education authorities of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria and the China Vocational Education Association. Upon his return to Brussels from China, Oscar was asked to preside over the World Skills Development Alliance, made up of VET providers, schools, private sector in China and with priority mission to connect Chinese and European VET providers optimising opporturnities and funding resources from both China and Europe. Oscar now acts as Co-Team Leader of EfVET Going Global Thematic Team. 

Pelin Ünlü has a master’s degree in European Gouvernance at Sciences Po Grenoble and she completed an English-medium bachelor’s degree in International Relations before. She participated in an Erasmus mobility experience in Spain. Regarding the KA2 Erasmus+ projects, she has been working as a project manager at SEPR since 2022. She is trilingual in Turkish, English and French, and also has an intermediate level of Spanish.

Roberta Richiero has been working in Vocational Education and Training for 22 years managing starting from planning the training activities and then managing Erasmus projects both KA1 and KA2. Her responsibilities include writing of proposals, coordinating the projects and reporting as well as assisting students, and contributing to the internationalization strategies of ENGIM.   Her strong points are the relationships with the wide European and local networks she built over the years and her hard-working attitude.

In the EFVET system she’s part of the Tourism Thematic Team leading one of its main tasks, the sustainability contest.   Her background is in languages, tourism and labour market policies. Ms. Roberta Richiero has been working in Vocational Education and Training for 22 years managing starting from planning the training activities and then managing Erasmus projects both KA1 and KA2. Her responsibilities include writing of proposals, coordinating the projects and reporting as well as assisting students, and contributing to the internationalization strategies of ENGIM.

Her strong points are the relationships with the wide European and local networks she built over the years and her hard-working attitude.  In the EFVET system she’s part of the Tourism Thematic Team leading one of its main tasks, the sustainability contest.   Her background is in languages, tourism and labour market policies. 

Sirje Hassinen: Expert of International Affairs has already worked in Omnia's Project Services department for 18 years as a coordinator and project manager of many international projects. Her responsibilities include a wide variety of international relationships, hosting study visits, different events and conferences, and working on transnational projects and global networks incl. Japan. Her Ph.D. in Linguistics is about Estonian-Finnish bilingualism.

She writes resumes and articles as well as gives lectures about multilingual and multicultural development as an external expert. As a language teacher, she has a lot of experience on different education levels as a teacher of first, second, and foreign languages. Internationalization describes both her personal and work life. Her ambition to connect with new people from different cultures and develop meta-skills in an international environment is made possible through her daily work on international affairs.

Valentina Chanina: EfVET Secretary General for many years she has been involved in European projects and tenders. She specialised in vocational education and training, adult education, relationship with European Commission and European Parliament, networking, and coordination of transnational partnerships.

Responsible of supporting in the management of European projects, as well as for the development and promotion of national and European dissemination strategies for European projects and financial management of the projects. She has developed significant technical skills and the ability to manage projects and bring together diverse, talented teams to achieve organisational goals.

She is familiar with EU Institutions and policies and has more than 20 years of experience in preparing handling project especially with the Erasmus+ programme, as well as conducting research, analysis task and formal reporting. Initiator of many formal and informal education activities for different groups. She has good experience in the elaboration and monitoring of dissemination and exploitation plans and strategies, as well as in the organisation of project events, workshops, and activities.