Foundation seminar series 2007 - Session 2: Youth and work - Speakers

2nd session 2007: 15 - 17 October 2007, Madrid, Spain

Venue: Consejo Económico y Social (CES), calle de las Huertas, 73, Madrid

Speakers

Melahat Güray works as a European Union Assistant Expert in the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security. She is involved in the process of harmonisation of the Turkish legislation with that of EU Acquis and EU projects in the field of social policy and employment. She coordinates the education and vocational training part of the Human Resources Operational Programme in Turkey. Her main thesis for expertise at the Ministry is youth unemployment in the EU and Turkey. She studied Political Science and Public Administration at the Middle East Technical University and is also studying for a master degree in European Economic and Public Affairs in UCD in Ireland. She is currently based at the European Foundation in Dublin. [abstract, pdf, 10kb] [presentation, pdf, 742kb]

Ilse Laurijssen is a researcher at the Sociology Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Associated with the interdisciplinary research group SONAR, she is involved in a longitudinal research project studying the transition from school to work. Her research interests include, among others, gender differences in early labour market careers. Last year, she and her colleagues published a book on the school careers of Flemish migrant youth.

Ingo Leven is a research consultant at TNS Infratest Social Research in Munich, Germany. Ingo was involved in the two recent Shell Youth Studies in Germany (2002, 2006). His main fields of research include growing up in Germany, socialisation and relationships between generations. His research focuses on attitudes and fears of Youth concerning the labour market. Last year he co-authored the 15th Shell Youth Study in Germany. His new book (as co-author) on Children in Germany will be published shortly. Ingo holds a MA degree in psychology. [abstract, pdf, 32kb] [presentation, pdf, 2528kb]

Svilen Ovcharov works as an attorney-at-law on cases of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the largest and most active human rights NGO in Bulgaria. Since 2006, he has been co-ordinating, as a senior lawyer, the project on monitoring and strategic litigation on behalf of victims of racial discrimination and violence. The project activities include working on numerous cases of discrimination at the workplace and discrimination in access to employment. His experience in the field also include participation in training sessions on anti-discrimination, as speaker or facilitator, with trade union members, government officials or young people and youth organisations.

Paweł Panczyj is president of the Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency (ARAW), which has recently expanded its range of activities beyond Wroclaw and included local governments of Wroclaw Agglomeration as well. Since 2007, he has been involved in the project The Future Metropolis which serves as the strategy used to monitor the labour market in Wroclaw’s agglomeration with special attention paid to less favoured groups. His team’s fruitful cooperation with scientists from the University of Technology in Wroclaw resulted in creating an integrative system named HSC Populus, a computerised system designed to analyse the Polish labour market. [presentation, pdf, Part 1, 4460kb - Part 2, 1610kb]

Ettore Recchi is an associate professor of sociology in the University of Florence, where he currently directs the social work programme. He is also co-director of the Euro-Mediterranean School on Migration and Development at the European University Institute (EUI). His main research foci are elites, social stratification, immigration and European integration. Among his most recent publications: Italy: Expansion, Reform, and Social Inequality in Higher Education, in Y. Shavit, R. Arum and A. Gamoran (eds), and Stratification in Higher Education: a Comparative Study, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2007, 400-420. Ettore Recchi holds a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the EUI. [abstract, pdf, 9kb] [presentation, pdf, 223kb]

Dermot Stokes is the National Coordinator of Youthreach for the Irish Department of Education and Science. He is also a member of the National Children's Advisory Council and the Children Acts Advisory Board. He has enjoyed a number of careers during his working life, as a teacher, curriculum developer and national programme director. Throughout, the principal focus of his work has been young people and especially their transition from childhood to adulthood. He has a particular interest in educational disadvantage and social exclusion on which he has written extensively. His doctoral research explored the matrix of influences involved in early school leaving.

Frank Visser works at the Employability Center of Philips Electronics Netherlands. He is responsible for the management of a large-scale training project at Philips called Skilled Workers Certification. He works on the following topics: accreditation of prior learning (APL), competence based training, Philips Employment Scheme and youngsters without starting qualification. He is also responsible for the national coordination of various subsidy provisions and tax credits. Frank holds a degree in Management Science and Industrial Engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology. [abstract, pdf, 10kb] [presentation, pdf, 865kb]

Greet Vermeylen works as a research manager on the Foundation’s fourth working conditions survey as well as on the European Working Conditions Observatory. Greet has also managed the Foundation’s project on the working poor. Prior to her current position, she was at the European University Institute in Florence. She previously worked in the European Commission (DG Employment and Social Affairs) and on the 2001 Belgian Presidency Taskforce dealing with social protection issues. [presentation, pdf, 150kb]