Mika Heino

Mr Heino is an Expert of International Activities in Omnia, Espoo (Finland). He has a Master’s degree in Hospitality Management. He has been working with various international projects and student mobility now for 14 years. Previously he worked as a lecturer of Restaurant Business in Omnia Adult Education Centre. Mr Heino is the coordinator of the VET2Sustain project. 

Email: mika.heino@omnia.fi

Päivi Korhonen

As a Director of Public Affairs Päivi Korhonen is responsible for societal advocacy, reputation management, and related stakeholder collaboration, coordination of networks, and media relations. Additionally, the Director of Public Affairs is in charge of corporate-level visits and events. Päivi designs the strategic communication at Omnia. Corporate image building and management is an important part of the work. Launching of the Omnia strategy is an essential core task segmented to the several stakeholder groups in the operational environment. Päivi Korhonen is also responsible for stakeholders´ relationships.

Päivi Korhonen is tightly networked both nationally and internationally.

Email: paivi.korhonen@omnia.fi

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Oona Haapakorpi

Ms Haapakorpi is a senior lecturer of Food Production at Omnia and she has a Master’s degree in of Hospitality Management, she has also attained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education Studies and The Vocational Special Needs Teacher Education Studies, and a B.Sc. Degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management. Her expertise is in implementation of new innovative teaching and digital learning methods.  

Email: oona.haapakorpi@omnia.fi

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Sami Kollanus

Sami Kollanus has been working at Omnia since 2020 as teacher in leadership and management training programs. He has experience both in VET and higher education. His work is focus on further training with adults and his special interests in the project include educational technologies.  

Contact: sami.kollanus@omnia.fi

Katariina Lankinen

Katariina Lankinen is a teacher at Omnia in social and health care. She is a teacher of practical nurses and teaches how to promote client’s functionality, ergonomics, occupational safety and how to maintain work ability. In VET2Sustain project Katariina is participating in work packages 1, 4 and 6.  

Email: katariina.lankinen@omnia.fi 

Kari Saarelma

I work as a training manager in the fields of mechanical engineering as well as security at Omnia. Previously, I have held similar positions in logistics, hotel and restaurant as well as health care.  I am particularly interested in developing vocational education so that it supports each student´s own growth. 

Email: kari.saarelma@omnia.fi

Tanja Oraviita

Tanja Oraviita MA (Master of Arts) works at MUOVA as a project manager for international projects. She is responsible for planning and managing international projects as well as bringing design and creative perspectives to international projects. 

Email: tanja.oraviita@muova.fi

Anne-Mari Tornberg

Anne-Mari Tornberg MA (Master of Arts) works as a designer and expert at MUOVA. She holds a Master’s degree in Interaction Design and is specialised and experienced in usability design and user-centred design. 

Email: anne-mari.tornberg@muova.fi

Risto Virkkunen

International Coordinator in Kainuu Vocational College. He has worked in Vocational Education and Training since 1987. First 18 years he worked as teacher and head of education in land-based education. Since 2006 he participated and coordinated various mobility and partnership project in Erasmus+ and other EU programs. 

In this project he is a member of the steering group.

Email: risto.virkkunen@kao.fi

Virpi Kaasinen

A Social and Health teacher at Kainuu Vocational College. She has been a member of the KAO International team for almost 14 years, and student and staff mobility and various international projects have been an important part of her work. Throughout her career, she has done a lot of international cooperation in various forms.

Email: virpi.kaasinen@kao.fi

Tarja Huovinen

 A lector on the field of Business and Administration and international co-ordinator at the Kainuu Vocational College in Kajaani. Tarja has teached since 2009 and she has been a member of the KAO International team for 10 years. Student mobility and international projects have been an important part of her work. 

Email: tarja.huovinen@kao.fi

Virpi Raatesalmi

A lector on the field of Business and Administration and international co-ordinator at the Kainuu Vocational College in Kuusamo. Virpi has been teaching since 2007 and she has been involved in to the mobilities various ways during the teaching career as well on her own studies since 1994.

Email: virpi.raatesalmi@kao.fi

Katarina Sandbacka

Katarina Sandbacka is Manager of International Affairs at Vamia. She holds a Master´s degree in Science, specialising in product development and management, particularly within the hospitality sector. With experience as a vocational education and training (VET) teacher and in various management roles across both industry and VET, Katarina is deeply involved in advancing vocational education both nationally and internationally. She contributes to the National VET team, participates in three different Centers of Vocational Excellence projects, Erasmus+ Blueprint projects, K2 initiatives, and mobility programs. She is passionate about the development of VET, regional development and international collaboration.

She is the WP leader for WP7 Creating a long-term strategic action plan to maintain the attractiveness of VET and part of the project steering group.

Email: katarina.sandbacka@vamia.fi

Sanna Kangasvieri

Sanna Kangasvieri is a chemistry teacher and project worker at Vamia. She is actively involved in national and international development projects, focusing on identifying and developing skills for the green transition and emerging industries, particularly within the energy sector. She is passionate about artificial intelligence and exploring its potential applications in advancing vocational education and training (VET). Educational technology is the special interest of her in the project.

Email: sanna.kangasvieri@vamia.fi

Hans Kankkonen

Hans Kankkonen holds a Master’s degree in Education and serves as the team leader for student counselors at Vamia. He has extensive experience as a student counselor, having worked in both upper comprehensive schools and vocational education and training (VET). In his role, he works closely with current and prospective students, teachers, and companies. Hans is deeply committed to promoting vocational education and training and is active in the the Finnish Student Counselor Association.

In this project, he will contribute his expertise in promoting vocational education and training (VET) and attracting prospective students to VET programs.

Email: hans.kankkonen@vamia.fi

Ari Hannus

Ari Hannus works as International Coordinator in Brahe Education Centre. He has 30 years of work experience in VET. He is a vocational teacher, special needs teacher, and Bachelor of Engineering in HEPAC. Brahe is responsible for communication and dissemination work package in the VET2Sustain project. 

Email: ari.hannus@brahe.fi

Mira Torvinen-Määttä

Mira Torvinen-Määttä works as Brahe Education Centre´s marketing and communication designer. She has a Master of Arts degree (graphic design, marketing), and strong work experience in advertising, marketing and communications. She also has a vocational teacher’s degree and 10 years of experience as a vocational teacher. Mira is responsible for communication and dissemination in the VET2Sustain project. 

Email: mira.torvinen-maatta@brahe.fi

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Anne-Mari Behm

Mrs Anne-Mari Behm is an Expert of International Activities and learning technologies in Samiedu Vocational College in Savonlinna, Finland. She has a Master’s degree in Hospitality Management, she has studied nature sciences, work psychology and pedagogy. She has been working with various international projects and student mobility for 10 years. Previously she worked 12 years as a lecturer of Tourism services in Samiedu. Samiedu is coordinating work package 6 together with Luovi. 

Anne-Mari is Samiedu’s representative and project manager for the VET2sustain project. In this project Samiedu aims to promote the reputation of VET and to ensure that both primary school students and adults interested in lifelong learning have access to sufficient information about VET. Samiedu is also interested in the use of VR and AR technology to enhance the attractiveness of VET.  

Email: anne-mari.behm@samiedu.fi

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Kirsi Laine

Kirsi Laine is responsible for the development of student administration services and transactions, as well as digitalization of these functions. She is also responsible of maintaining and developing student administration software´s user interface. Kirsi Laine has 20 years of work experience in a software company, where she has worked in several different positions related to software implementation projects. 

Email: kirsi.laine@samiedu.fi

Sami Pirhonen

Sami Pirhonen is a Senior Expert in interactive and digital platforms. He has about 22 years of experience in vocational education. Sami worked as a wood technology teacher for approximately 14 years. He collaborates with students and teachers almost every day, planning and creating various types of materials to make learning easier, more effective, and more interesting.

Email: sami.pirhonen@samiedu.fi  

Mari Kontturi

Mari Kontturi has over 20 years’ experience in internationalisation of VET. She works at Luovi Vocational College as Manager of International Affairs. She is experienced in project management,  strategy work as well as in Peer review. In VET2Sustain I am responsible for the overall management of the project in Luovi. 

Email: mari.kontturi@luovi.fi   

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Maarit Vuorela

Maarit Vuorela works at Luovi Vocational College as Communications Specialist. She is experienced in project communications, social media, online communications as well as some parts of graphic designing. In the project Maarit works to achieve the goals of creating a communication campaign to raise the attractiveness of VET (Work Package 6) together with partners.

Email: maarit.vuorela@luovi.fi

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Henri Pennanen

Henri Pennanen is responsible for ThingLink’s content production services. He designs and creates interactive learning environments for education providers and business customers. Henri’s background is in education, where he has worked in various positions and on development projects focusing on new learning technologies.

Email: henri@thinglink.com

Keijo Haataja

Keijo Haataja is the Senior Manager Funded Projects at ThingLink Ltd. He is responsible for managing the Vet2Sustain project at ThingLink side. He has over 20 years of experience also from academic world (UEF, University of Eastern Finland) in which he has also been teaching some ICT courses. 

Email: keijo@thinglink.com

André Pape 

Functional Specialist, Educational Logistics Coordinator, i-coaches 

Key-team member Npuls, Responsible for XR, Digital Learning resources and Educational Technology 

Email: ja.pape@alfa-college.nl

Bob Klaasen

My name is Bob Klaasen. I am a policy advisor for the Technology and Built Environment sector at the MBO Raad, an organization that represents more than 50 VAT schools in The Netherlands. We engage in advocacy, knowledge sharing and innovative projects. 

Email: b.klaasen@mboraad.nl

Mirjam van den Broek

Senior Policy Advisor at the MBO Raad (the Dutch association of (57) VET colleges in the Netherlands). 

She is responsible for International affairs and projects for all member-schools with Technology courses, President from INNOTECS (The International organisation of Technical Schools with 75 European members) and member of euhofa (association of hotel school directors and deans of hospitality colleges and universities with more than 200 international members). She has been partner and project leader in several European (Erasmus) projects. 

Email: m.vandenbroek@mboraad.nl

Durk van Wieren

Durk van Wieren is the coordinator for (inter)national projects at Aventus. After finishing his study as an automotive engineer and working in business, he joint Aventus in 1998. Durk is international coordinator for 15 years and has a lot of experience in managing cooperation projects. Durk will be the Aventus coordinator for the VET2Sustain project. 

Email: d.vanwieren@aventus.nl

Silke Hillermann

Silke Hillermann is the international coordinator of Berufsbildende Schulen in Syke, Germany (BBS Syke Europaschule). After school, Silke has finished her apprenticeship as a Management Assistant in the Industry followed by a Master´s Degree in Economics and Business Administration. She gained business experience not only by working in Germany but also abroad for a couple of years before becoming a teacher. Silke joined BBS Syke Europaschule in 2004 and has been the international coordinator for BBS Syke Europaschule since 2015. She has acquired a lot of experience in many KA1 and KA2 projects and will be the BBS Syke Europaschule´s coordinator for the VET2Sustain project. 

Email: silke.hillermann@bbs-syke.de

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Peter Willenborg

Peter Willenborg is a teacher for Business, Economics and English at the BBZ Dr. J. Ulderup in Diepholz, Germany. In addition, he has been working on Erasmus Projects with European countries for about 10 years. His school was the partner organization in various EU KA1 projects (Comenius and Leonardo da Vinci).  

Peter has a Master´s degree in Business & Economics and Vocational Education and 20 years of experience in VET education. He would like to contribute to WP7 (and WP6).

Email: peter.willenborg@bbz-ulderup.de

Dana Eiberg

Dana Eiberg has been a member of the BBZ Dr. Jürgen Ulderup since 2017, where she teaches in the areas of business, health and care. Additionally, she is a member of the extended school management team and leads a department that focuses on various vocational training specializations.

She has a degree in economics (diploma in economics) and a Master of Education for vocational schools. She has also taken part in several EU projects in the VET-area. With several years of professional experience across diverse sectors including business, healthcare, education and research, she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role at VET. She would like to contribute to WP7 (and WP6).

Ulrich Woydt

Ulrich Woydt is the administrator at the BBZ Dr. J. Ulderup in Diepholz, Germany. Therefore he is in charge of personnel and budget of our school.

Ulrich is a “Graduate in Public Management” and at the BBZ since 2013. He has been supportive for Erasmus+-Projects since then.

Merla Prietz

Merla is international affairs and mobility counsellor at the Hanover Chamber of Crafts. After studying Romance languages and literature (M.A.) and living in New Zealand and France, Merla worked for an intercultural management consultancy until she joined the Hanover Chamber of Skilled Crafts in 2018. Here, she organises internships abroad for trainees, young skilled workers and trainers and manages international and EU projects. 

Email: prietz@hwk-hannover.de

Carlo Cavicchioli

Senior Expert with over 20 years professional experience on:  Coordination of VET and Higher VET Training Centers. Design of VET programmes. Implementation of applied research on VET and labor market intelligence. Design and implementation of e-learning. Coordination of applied research. Certification of competencies in formal, non formal and informal contexts. 

Email: carlo.cavicchioli@outlook.it

Beatrice Dusi

Ms Dusi is responsible for the communication office in ENAC. She holds a bachelor in Communication and a Master’s degree in Publishing and Journalism with a thesis dedicated to Podcasts: ‘From FM Radio to Podcasts in Italy”. She has worked with a variety of projects within the Erasmus+ programme and through that experience she has built up his competences and knowledge in managing project outcomes and dissemination activities. She had the opportunity in several EU projects to deal with media campaigns on social media channel, digital strategy (newsletter, website, and etc) and promotional audio visual material. 

Email: beatrice.dusi@enac.org

Simona Puggioni

She has a Master Degree in Languages for Tourism and Business Communication, 2 Courses on European projects attended at CCITABEL in Brussels and almost 10 years of experience in EU project management. 

Since 2017 she’s been working in ENAC, mainly as Erasmus+ KA1 projects coordinator, as well as in other projects in the fields of vocational education and training and school education. 

Email: simona.puggioni@enac.org

Luca Calligaro

He has a master’s degree in European Studies and 10 years of experience in EU project management. After collecting professional experience as project manager in the social and health care sectors, he has worked since 2015 in research, development and implementation of innovation projects in education and vocational training. He is the Head of Internationalisation in ENAC and has designed and managed several EU projects addressing the following topics: Early School Leaving, Failure in education, Key Competences, New innovative curricula and educational methods, Entrepreneurship education. He also has extensive experience in the development and management of Erasmus+ projects, development and implementation of project outcomes, as well as the organisation of different events – conferences, training courses, information meetings, etc. 

Email: luca.calligaro@enac.org 

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