1. Which 3 words would you choose to describe your first year in charge of this new unit bringing together the Eurydice Network, Youth Wiki and major European education platforms? 

 "We would say “synergies”, “communities” and “cross-fertilisation”. It’s all about connecting and multiplying here in what we do. Eurydice and Youth Wiki are of course bringing together wide and diverse networks that provide European and national policymaking with the kind of evidence and understanding that we need. Our in-person meetings after the pandemic have also shown that this is as much about people as about policy. The education platforms such as EPALE (for adult learning) or eTwinning for schools are also about bringing people together, about sharing and building communities of practice. During our first year in the Unit, we have strived to push this way of conceiving our work, and to stimulate spillovers across sectors. And we definitely have seen it coming together this way!"

2. Do you think the work done by the Eurydice and Youth Wiki networks is important? And if so, why and for whom?    

"The Eurydice and Youth Wiki networks are a unique source of reliable, qualitative information covering many European countries.  If we believe that policy-making in the fields of education and youth should be evidence-based, then we need to collect this evidence in the best possible way. They represent an important repository of knowledge and intelligence about European education policy that can be freely accessed by all types of stakeholders to better define future directions. That’s their role and we are  proud to support its development.  

And for Europe’s citizens, if Europe is indeed part of our shared identity, we need to better understand each other and learn the way our systems work. Education is one of the policy areas that is closest to and has the most significant impact on people,all the way from the cradle to the grave If you want to find out about education and youth policies in other countries, we collect the information and help to make it understandable and comparable. Hopefully this will lead to inspiration and cross-learning."    

3. Do you think that the work done by the networks could be better known and used by Europe’s citizens? What should we do to make that happen?   

"We always want our good and useful work to be better known of course. When you have a lot of information – as we do - one of the key challenges is making sure it is widely available, easy to locate, and easy to understand. We are constantly thinking about that and assessing how to improve access to information. Among other things, visualisation of data and communication about our work are two key priorities at the moment. We are planning some changes to our website and to our reports in order to make them both more appealing and more user-friendly. It’s a challenge for everyone, but one that we are doing our best to address, and where ever-improving digital tools will help us."  

4. What other opportunities do you see for the networks to develop in the medium-long term?

"We can always do more – examining new issues, looking more deeply into common challenges, and working with a wider range of stakeholders and partners. We hope that our networks will also continue to grow, so that we are able to broaden the understanding of European education and youth systems, and to spread good policy ideas throughout the whole of Europe. We have been paying a lot of attention to the education of Ukrainian refugees in Europe this year, and we hope that we will be able to integrate Ukraine into our networks in the not-too-distant future. This may be one small contribution to supporting the regeneration of education and youth when the conflict is over."     

5. Can you tell us one a ‘best’ and ‘worst’ moment for you since joining the Unit?  

"Since we joined, there have been only good moments, even if there were some challenges. This year, we launched quite a few new platforms : the European Digital Education Hub, the European School Education Platform, and a new version of the Online Language Support, now hosted on EU Academy. As with any major IT project, there were some hick-ups along the way. Still, we managed! The best moments were numerous: realizing the commitment of the team is a daily satisfaction. Having the team converging, sharing experience and vision to go further together is a gift. And the best is yet to come. We have many ideas for 2023, to serve even better the European Commission, the policy makers, researchers and citizens. 2023 will be the year where we work to collect, analyse and share more quality information more quickly, more clearly and to more people, while still supporting communities of practice in different education domains."

Thank you Florence and Mitch for this inspiring year at the helm of the Unit, and good luck for everything to come!