Keynote

Professor Karen Evans: What’s new about lifelong learning?

Karen Evans is Professor Emerita of Education at UCL Institute of Education. Formerly Chair in Education and Lifelong Learning at UCL Institute of Education, University of London she specialises in international and comparative studies of education and learning throughout the life course. She has led programmes of research in the UK Economic and Social Research Council LLAKES Centre for Learning and Life Chances between 2008 and 2016 and is now LLAKES Honorary Professor.  Karen Evans’ main fields of research are learning in life and work transitions and learning in and through the workplace. She has conducted many international, collaborative studies of learning and working life. Her most recent co-authored book is How Non-permanent Workers Learn and Develop (2018). Karen Evans is currently Chair of the Asia-Europe Lifelong Learning Hub Research Network on work and learning and Editor of the Springer Lifelong Learning Series. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Dr Sai Loo: Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Further Education

Dr Sai Loo (PhD, MA, BSc, FHEA, ACA, FETC) is an academic at the UCL Institute of Education, University College London. He teaches on the doctoral, masters, and the University of London External Degree programmes. Sai has taught in FE and worked in industry as a Chartered Accountant. His current research projects are ‘Implications of reflective practice for education’, and ‘Creative workers in the sectors of architecture, artificial intelligence and robotics.’ He has published over 100 articles, conference papers and keynotes (85 per cent are single-authored). His research monographs by Routledge include Creative Working in the Knowledge Economy (2017), Vocationalism in Further and Higher Education (2017), Teachers and Teaching in Vocational and Professional Education, (2018), Further Education, Professional and Occupational Pedagogy (2019), and Multiple Dimensions of Teaching and Learning for Occupational Practice (2019).

Professor Christopher Winch: The EU VET policy tools such as EQF, ECVET and ESCO and their prospects for success

Christopher Winch is currently Professor of Educational Philosophy and Policy in the School of Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London. He was Head of the Department of Education and Professional Studies at King’s from 2008 until 2012. A longstanding member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, he was its Chair from 2008 until 2011. He has worked in primary, further and higher education. He researches mainly in the fields of Philosophy of Education, Professional and Vocational Education with an emphasis on professional knowledge and judgement and on comparative European VET.  He is the author of ‘Dimensions of Expertise’ (Bloomsbury 2010) and many other books and articles relating to professional and vocational education, including ‘Knowledge, Skills and Competence in the European Labour Market’ with Linda Clarke, Michaela Brockmann, Anneke Westerhuis, Georg Hanf and Philippe Mehaut. He is currently working on a project concerned with comparing VET qualifications in Europe.