International Micro-credentials Summit 2023

William O’Keeffe

William O’Keeffe is a Policy Officer in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) unit in DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission. He most recently worked on the development of the European approach to micro-credentials and has previously worked on the new Europass platform, including European Digital Credentials for Learning, as well as digital and entrepreneurial skills in the Commission. William previously worked in Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) where he worked with the Irish ENIC-NARIC, and topics related to quality assurance and learning mobility.

Jake Hirsch-Allen

Jake is a Director on the Boards of the Ontario Tech Talent, Canadian Council for Youth Prosperity, and the Canadian Club. He founded Lighthouse Labs, Canada’s foremost software development bootcamp and Hacking Health. A former intellectual property and international criminal lawyer, Jake was also Chair of the Technology Committee of the Global Education Platform, taught Global Health at McMaster University and clerked at the Supreme Court of Israel.

Wesley Teter

Dr Wesley Teter is Senior Consultant for Educational Innovation and Skills Development at UNESCO’s Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok, Thailand and an advisor in the Learning Economy Foundation’s R&D Lab. He promotes cross-sector collaboration in education and health workforce governance with projects funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), UNESCO, the U.S. Department of State and World Bank. He is co-editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Education Policy by Edward Elgar Publishing (2023) and two UNESCO guidelines on developing and implementing qualification frameworks in Asia-Pacific. His technical assistance projects in Asia-Pacific focus on understanding implementation gaps for fair recognition of skills and qualifications.

Shizuka Kato

Shizuka Kato is an Analyst in the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, currently leading work on microcredentials. She specialises in higher education policy and has previously worked on projects examining the emergence of alternative credentials, digital transformation and labour market relevance and outcomes, as well as the review of several European higher education systems. Prior to joining the OECD, she worked for Waseda University in Tokyo, facilitating the institution’s faculty and student mobility and international cooperation in the International Affairs Division.

Lena Patterson

Lena is Program Director of Business Development and Microcredentials at The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), Canada, where she serves professional learners in a new Microcredential strategy and portfolio. She has eleven years experience in higher education and nonprofit leadership focused on open education, online and technology-enabled teaching and learning, education and industry pathways, and microcredentials. Prior to joining TMU, Lena was a Senior Director at eCampusOntario, where she led the design of a province wide Microcredentials Framework and popularized it for system application through pilot funding, research, and community engagement. Lena has a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Western University.

Cynthia Proctor

Cynthia Proctor is the Director of Communications and Academic Policy Development at the State University of New York (SUNY) System. With SUNY for over 20 years, she develops and supports the implementation of SUNY academic policy (applicable to all 64 campuses). Central to her work is advancement of SUNY’s award-winning microcredential policy, working to provide transformational career opportunities and pathways to initial and advanced degrees—for existing learners, adult learners and incumbent workers at every level. Ms. Proctor holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Public Relations from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations/Journalism from Utica College.

Mike Feerick

Mike Feerick is CEO & Founder of Alison, one of the world’s largest free empowerment platforms with near 30 million registered users and 5 million course graduates. Alison provides 4,000+ free micro-courses focused on workplace learning and skills training, free psychometric, aptitude, and mental health and wellbeing tests and assessments, as well as free recruitment and group learning and free LMS services to organisations. Based in Ireland, Alison is a for-profit social enterprise and employs a team of 200 remote staff across 35 countries.

Michael Sankey

Professor Michael Sankey is from Charles Darwin University in Australia, where he is the Director Learning Futures and Lead Education Architect. In addition to this role, Michael is President of the Australasian Council on Open, Distance and e-Learning (ACODE) and a Fellow of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE). He specialises in emerging technologies, technology enhanced learning, curriculum and assessment renewal, eLearning quality, multimodal design, digital, visual and multiliteracies. Michael has worked in Higher Education for 30+ years, at 5 Universities and is particularly interested in how constructively aligned and aesthetically enhanced learning environments can better transmit concepts to students, particularly those from diverse backgrounds and those who study at a distance.

Sharon Leu

Sharon Leu is an Executive in Residence at JFFLabs at Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit in the US driving the design and scale of technology-enabled approaches to promoting economic advancement. She is focused on building infrastructure for a skills-based talent marketplace, supporting interoperability standards for digital credentials technology, and empowering individuals to use their data to access opportunity. Prior to joining JFFLabs, Sharon led postsecondary education innovation at the US Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology and has managed the employment and training innovation portfolio at the US Department of Labor’s Division of Strategic Investments. Sharon hopes to be a park ranger when she grows up.

Simone Ravaioli

Creative EdTech leader with a portfolio of diverse experiences advancing the global credentialing ecosystem. Day job is to turn credentials into opportunities as the Director of Global Ecosystem and Innovation at Parchment, the leading credentialing platform in Higher Education globally. Night hustle is to build out the global credentialing ecosystem across education and work by contributing and leading work on technical open standards in support of technical (and human) interoperability

Mark Brown

Professor Mark Brown is Ireland’s first Chair of Digital Learning and Director of the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) at Dublin City University, Ireland. Mark is a Senior Fellow of the European Distance and eLearning Network (EDEN) and also serves on the Management Board of EDEN Digital Learning Europe. Additionally, Professor Brown serves on the Supervisory Board of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU). The Commonwealth of Learning recognised Mark in 2017 as a world leader in the field of Open, Distance and Digital Education and in 2019 he chaired the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning held in Dublin. In 2020, Mark contributed to the European Commission’s Higher Education Consultation Group on developing a EU-wide policy response to the growth of micro-credentials. In 2021, Mark completed a state-of-the-art literature review on the global development of micro-credentials on contract to the European Commission. In 2022, Professor Brown was commissioned by the OECD to review quality assurance processes for new models of blended, hybrid and online learning worldwide and this year the contract extends to include micro-credentials. Mark More information… https://www.dcu.ie/nidl/director-nidl

Anastasia Pouliou

Anastasia Pouliou is a Cedefop Expert in qualifications and credentials – Future of VET. She is currently leading the research conducted under Cedefop’s project on Microcredentials for labour market education and training, the project on learning outcomes and the Future of VET in Europe. She is involved in other Cedefop activities (including the coordination of developments on national qualifications frameworks and the TVET-Interagency group on the Future of VET). Before joining Cedefop she worked as an educational consultant in the Ministry of Education and Religious affairs and as a head of the European Affairs Unit in the Organisation for Vocational Education and Training (Greece). She has performed senior management and national coordination on Europass and Leonardo da Vinci projects and has published articles in academic journals.

Deirdre Harkin

A highly motivated education professional with over 20 years’ experience in teaching, delivery of professional development and change management in the education sector. As Regional Development Officer with the National Behaviour Support Service and Assistant National Coordinator with the National Council for Special Education I was committed to embedding inclusive and innovative practice. I am passionate about the provision of high-quality educational opportunities for all learners with a strong focus on delivering transformative and sustainable organisational change. I am currently Project Lead for the Micro-credentials programme at Trinity College Dublin as well as a member of the Irish Universities Association MicroCreds team. This project is part of the national Human Capital Initiative for driving innovation and agility in the higher education sector in Ireland.

Elena Janssen

Elena Janssen is a Digital Learning expert with a background in psychology and learning sciences. She has worked in both public and non-profit sectors, having developed open educational resources and social digital learning spaces for learners ranging from primary to post-university level. Elena is working as Lead of Learning Experience at atingi, a global learning platform of the German Institute for International Development. Her goal is to connect people to opportunities – at atingi, she is focusing on increasing the value of digital certificates. Atingi is developing new ways for users to display and validate their skills, gained in formal and informal contexts, enabling them to own their data through a decentralized personal Learning record store that connects them to employment opportunities, provides personalized learning pathways, and support tailored to their unique context, goals, and needs.

Chiara Finocchietti

Chiara Finocchietti is Director of CIMEA – NARIC Italia. Geographer, she comes from the world of research and is an expert in the evaluation of qualifications and higher education systems. Author of various publications on the subject of credential evaluation, she coordinates numerous international projects on the above topics and is a member of various international working groups on higher education policies. She has been appointed a member of the European Union Micro-credentials Higher Education Consultation Group, she is a member of the Working Group on Higher Education of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Education (CDEDU Working Group on Higher Education), and is an expert of the ETINED Platform (Council of Europe Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education). She is Vice-president of the ENIC Bureau and National Correspondent for the Italian Qualifications Framework within the EHEA.

Colin Tück

Colin Tück is the Director of the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR). He has been working for EQAR since October 2007, initially as Project Manager on behalf of its founding members (ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE). Colin is overseeing the management of the Register and the support for the EQAR Register Committee, the management of the Database of External Quality Assurance Results (DEQAR) and EQAR’s contribution to shaping the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). He was a member of the Steering Group for the revision of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), and is a co-author of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes.

Aleksandra Zhivkovikj joined the Secretariat in July 2020. She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University “SS. Cyril and Methodius”-Skopje and a master’s degree in educational policies and development from the University of Oslo, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Malta. She has been working in the civil society sector in North Macedonia for a few years, participating in several research projects about higher education, exploring topics such as malpractices in academia, disadvantaged groups in higher education, student services and guidance, student activism and organising. Before joining the Secretariat, Aleksandra worked as a consultant at the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills.

Ildiko Mazar

During her 25 years of professional practice in the field of open education and e-learning Ildiko has observed and engaged in policy dialogues, professional academic collaborations, and practice exchange, actively contributing to the modernisation of European Higher Education and education technology in general. Utilising her experience, expertise and transversal skills, she contributed to the conception, management and sucessful implementation of 50+ edtech projects. Recently she’s focusing mostly on the development and uptake of innovative solutions in the fields of competence development and (micro-)credentialing. Since 2019 she has been supporting the European Commission in deploying the Europass Digital Credentials for Learning.

Florian Rampelt

Florian is Programme Director for Digital Education and Managing Director of the AI Campus at Stifterverband in Berlin. The education scientist works on future-proof education and training for the digital transformation. His mission is to strengthen AI knowledge and skills through free digital learning opportunities for everyone. Florian’s research currently focuses on knowledge, skills and qualifications on artificial intelligence, questions of recognition of prior learning and the potentials of micro-credentials in Germany.

Mike Bernd,

Mike is a Team Lead at the Stifterverband and Head of Content in the research and development project AI Campus – The Learning Platform for Artificial Intelligence. The social scientist worked previously as a Manager for Quality Assurance at Kiron Open Higher Education and as an Instructional Designer at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg. During his four years at the University of Shanghai for Science & Technology he designed digital micro learning content for the use in blended learning settings. The development of smart learning environments and digitally enhanced learning spheres is his passion.

Anthony F. Camilleri

Anthony has over 15 years of experience in areas of learning innovation, digitisation, and quality assurance. His current area of expertise lies in unbundling, micro-credentialing and interoperability of educational data. He has served as the scientific coordinator of multiple E+ projects focusing on micro-credentialing, including MicroHE, MicroCredX, ECCOE, VMPass, and OEPass. In addition, Anthony was a member of the EU Advisory Group on Micro-Credentials and has presented 25+ keynotes and presentations at conferences, sharing guidelines and best practices for micro-credentials. He is one of the creators of the European Learning Model, and the European Digital Credential Infrastructure.

Paul den Hertog

Paul den Hertog is a sailor, design thinker and project manager with a strong believe in the positive effect of education on both individuals and society. Technology and education have enhanced the quality of life for most of us and will continue to do so. Paul is eager to make education more accessible and flexible than today, using emerging technologies. The introduction of Open Badges and Verifiable Credentials with a focus on international interoperability, is something he actively promotes. The Dutch initiatives that support this development, such as the SURF Edubadges infrastructure and the National Pilot with Microcredentials are considered essential ingredients for a more flexible and futureproof education landscape.

Carlos Delgado Kloos

Carlos Delgado Kloos received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Technische Universität München and in Telecommunications Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He is Full Professor of Telematics Engineering at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, where he is the Director of the GAST research group, Director of the UNESCO Chair on “Scalable Digital Education for All”, and Vice President for Strategy and Digital Education. He has carried out research stays at several universities such as Harvard, MIT, Munich, and Passau. His main research interests are in Educational Technology. He has been involved in a large number of research projects and has published around 500 articles. He has coordinated several MOOCs and is presently promoting the adoption of digital micro-credentials in Spain through the project CertiDigital (certidigital.es).

Fernando Galán

Fernando Galán is the Executive Director of the Arqus European University Alliance and has over 10 years’ experience working on European higher education policies. Before joining Arqus, Fernando was head of international engagement at Crue Universidades Españolas, the Spanish rectors’ conference. He has also worked as policy and project officer at EURASHE, and as President of the European Students’ Union (ESU), being responsible for the coordination of its policy work. In these roles, he has contributed to relevant policy documents and initiatives in the field of higher education. Fernando has been a member of the BFUG board and of different expert groups of the European Union, the Council of Europe, UNESCO and the OECD, as well as of quality assurance agencies and universities among others.

Alessandra Antonaci

Her expertise is related to EU projects funded management and coordination, pedagogy, didactics, educational technologies, gamification, active methodologies for adult education, lifelong learning, research methods, academic writing, reporting, and engaging techniques in online, blended and hybrid scenarios. She has gained experience in the course and curriculum design, policy recommendations and strategies, micro-credentials & recognition. Lately getting to know a lot (from the pedagogical side) about LLM and AI generative systems.

Corinne Aubert leads the ERASMUS+ D-Reskill@U project. She is Research Director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and former dean of Faculty of Sciences and Engineering, Sorbonne Université. Her research field is Molecular Chemistry. She has also an extensive experience in teaching her discipline.

François Rochet participates to the D-Reskill@U project, being responsible for the project result “Modelling the Career Guidance Software. He is professor of Chemistry at Sorbonne University. He is also director of the Parisian Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry. His main research field is X-ray photoemission spectroscopy applied to surface reactivity. He teaches chemistry at all levels from introductory courses to specialized courses at master level.

Manfred Zahn

Manfred Zahn holds a degree in mechanical engineering and completed his MBA in general management. His first positions at Festo were in operations and supply chain management. Manfred Zahn was then a lean consultant at Festo Didactic and a project manager in various customer projects. From 2010 to 2015, he was head of a consulting team at the Esslingen site. Between 2015 and 2020, he was Head of Qualification at Festo. Since 2020, he has been working as a project manager for strategic HR projects. Among other things, he is the project driver for the Capability Shift action field defined in the Festo Corporate Strategy.