For over 20 years, Mr Geert Nanne Bruining has worked in the Dutch, English and Irish vocational educational systems as a teacher, internal verifier, Programme Leader/Quality Nominee BTEC (International

Business Studies) and project manager ‘Hotspot Cork’ at Noorderpoort, Groningen, a vocational

educational organisation in the north of the Netherlands. Currently, Geert works as teacher / internal verifier / programme leader of BTEC (International Business Studies) at Noorderpoort.

He has an Educational Bachelor’s degree in General Economics, Business Economics and History and

recently received his Educational Master’s degree in Learning and Innovation. Geert Nanne’s thesis was on international cooperation in vocational education and was partially completed while living in Cork for a year. In Cork, he established durable relationships with educational and business partners. Thanks to these relationships, Noorderpoort was able to help the City of Groningen become the first Dutch City in the Unesco Network of Learning Cities in 2018.

Mr David Muldoon has worked in vocational services for people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups for over 30 years. He has managed disability training, education and employment access services for 17 years and was Head of Quality & Accreditation for Rehab Group for 10 years holding national responsibility for developing and monitoring quality systems.

David represented Rehab Group on organisations and service development groups at national and European levels. He is a qualified assessor for EFQM excellence model and for EQUASS and has lectured on Masters in Rehabilitation programme in UCD.

David holds a B Comm degree and a Post Graduate Diploma in Vocational & Vocational Rehabilitation from UCD and a Master’s in Education (Training & Development) from University of Sheffield.

She was a consultant for the EQAVET Secretariat and, in that capacity, she acted as an expert in support of the implementation of the EQAVET Recommendation (2008-2019) at European level. She also assisted:

a) Portuguese institutions, i.e. ANQEP- the National Agency for Qualifications and Professional Training (2014-2016) and ANESPO- the National Association of Professional Schools (2018) in aligning their existing quality approaches in VET to the EQAVET Framework;

b) EFT by acting as rapporteur for the second annual meeting of the ETF Forum for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training, Turin, Italy (2018);

c) 3s Unternehmensberatung GmbH in providing services relating to the Cedefop study ‘Quality assurance of certification in vocational education and training’ (2013).

Prior to joining the EQAVET Secretariat, Maria Emília Galvão was Director General for European Affairs and International Relations in the Portuguese Ministry of Education. Previously, she held different educational positions, including teaching at secondary and polytechnic levels, curriculum development and teacher training.

Maria Emília Galvão graduated from Universidade Clássica (Lisboa) in Germanic Philology and earned a Master’s degree in Education from Universidade Nova (Lisboa).

One of Nikki’s clients in ProTemp offered the partnership positions on their growing management team and for the next six years Nikki was part of a Senior Management Team in a Manufacturing Company as their HR Director along with responsibility for Health & Safety. Since July last, year Nikki has started her own business, Propel 2Gether which offers mentoring, coaching and training services.

Prior to his current role, Trevor was Business Relations Manager with Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education & Training Board for a number of years and general manager of the North Wall Community Training Centre, a FÁS Community Training Centre providing training opportunities to early school leavers, for 9 years. He was Access Officer in DCU for 2 years where he co-ordinated a range of programmes to support Access students (those from under-represented backgrounds) during their

studies.

Trevor was elected to the position of Chair by members of the National Adult Literacy Agency Board and performed this role for 6 years. Trevor has also lectured in aspects of Management such as: Leadership,

Change Management, Strategic Management and Corporate Governance.