ETF welcomes new Director Cesare Onestini

The European Training Foundation (ETF) welcomes its new Director Cesare Onestini, who takes over the leadership of the European Union (EU) agency from 1 September, 2017.

Cesare Onestini brings a wealth of experience to the top job, building on a distinguished EU career that combines education and training policy, external relations and management at the highest level.

Prior to his appointment at the ETF, he was Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to India and Bhutan, where he served for the past three years.

Mr Onestini joined the European Commission in 1995, working for six years in the area of education and training. He subsequently held a variety of roles in energy, trade, the Secretariat General and external relations, where he was Head of Political and Security Council Affairs in the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York.

He joined the European External Action Service in 2010, playing a key role in setting the service up as advisor to the Chief Operating Officer and Head of the Corporate Board Secretariat. Mr Onestini is a graduate of Oxford University, where he achieved a doctorate in higher education policy.

Speaking at a recent European Parliamentary Committee hearing, he stressed the priority that the EU is placing on skills for jobs and growth, making reference to the new Skills Agenda for Europe.

‘Such a priority is just as key for relations with the neighbourhood region. In the context of the changing, globalised world, there is a need to ‘strengthen the way in which we anticipate needs.’ he told the committee hearing.

The ETF is a centre of expertise and a catalyst for reform of education, training and labour market systems in developing and transition countries bordering Europe.