Ummuhan Bardak: Two decades of stimulating work at the ETF

For two decades, Ummuhan Bardak has worked at the ETF, and has never found the job routine or unstimulating. A senior specialist on labour markets and migration, Bardak is intrigued by the unique combination of expertise used in the ETF’s work: thematic, country-specific, and within the EU framework.  

“If you take up the challenge, working at the ETF is continuous learning experience with every theme and country we work in. It has been extremely enriching and a privilege for me due to the diversity of countries and thematic areas involved,” she says.  

Indicative of the evolving nature of the ETF’s geographical scope is the recent request from the EU Delegation in Rwanda for the ETF to conduct an analysis of the employment and skill needs in the country’s agricultural sector. The results were used to design a new EU programme and for capacity building for Rwandan government officials. Being one of the first sub-Saharan African countries the ETF has been involved in, the largely agricultural and informal labour market required a very different approach and advice for its employment and training policies, she says.  

This approach is reflected in each country the ETF works in, as it does not adopt a cut-and-paste approach to solving employment and skills needs.

“We need to interpret, reinterpret and reflect on our knowledge for each country’s context again and again. You cannot have a one-size-fits-all policy for every country; even in the most common subject matters such as unemployment, the profile of unemployed people is so different in any country that each requires a different type of support,” says Bardak.  

From Türkiye to the ETF 

Before joining the ETF, Bardak was part of the Turkish civil service and worked for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for almost a decade, primarily on employment policies. After studying for a second Master’s degree at the London School of Economics, she started at ETF as a labour market expert.  

Bardak has been involved in several projects related to the labour market, employment, migration and human capital development in the European neighbourhood regions. The nature of her work has changed from research and analysis and policy dialogue to capacity building and project management.  

“In today’s fast changing labour markets, our analyses of employment trends and emerging skill needs help improve employment and training policies and align skills policies to economic demand. Employment is a very important part of people’s lives, so increasing employment, employability and skills matching, especially for vulnerable groups like young people not in education, training and employment (NEETs), are crucial for both economic growth and social inclusion”, says Bardak. 

Bardak has extensive knowledge of national and regional labour markets in the Southern Mediterranean, the Eastern Partnership region and the Western Balkans. 

The migration dossier 

Bardak has been a key figure in developing the ETF’s migration dossier, pairing the work with the term ‘skills dimension of migration’ to emphasise its focus on skills-related aspects. Given the impact of migration on improving people’s lives, the ETF’s focus on the skills aspects of migrants helps raise the importance of skills and employment policies in managing migration for a triple-win. 

“Mapping policy measures and good practice to support migrants from a skills and employment perspective (so-called MISMES) was a natural next step to advocate the implementation of such policy measures to increase the benefits and reduce the costs of migration,” she says. 

Constructive change  

Bardak is self-deprecating about the impact of her work, noting that there are many complex factors at play that lead to constructive change, not least to see long-term changes as a result of a country implementing policy changes. She also notes the challenges of working in some countries that do not noticeably progress. “It can be quite disappointing not to see visible improvements after many years of work” she says. On the other hand, she says sharing knowledge, experience and good practice among country stakeholders and international fora is very rewarding. 

Another positive highlight has been her work in designing major EU programmes in certain countries to support the EU Delegations, often to reform vocational education and training systems as well as employment policies and services. 

“The impact is much more visible due to the combination of high-level EU investment and first-hand provision of technical expertise by the ETF. I remember in Georgia, as a result of several EU-funded programmes, the government reinstated the public employment service and public VET schools after dissolving them in its first decade of independence,” she says. 

Given the amount of EU investment in all countries, designing EU programmes is one of the most promising future work areas for the ETF, says Bardak.     

Food for thought 

The ETF’s role is “to give food for thought with several options and examples, so they can choose among different models. We are obliged to be an impartial and objective information provider. And this is the only way you gain people’s trust, which is extremely important in policy advice,” she says. 

With real-world insight, Bardak says that organising a conference or workshop is not enough to change people’s minds towards certain policies or approaches. 

“It is often through more informal and honest discussions during coffee breaks, lunches or dinners. It is about full engagement beyond just making a presentation, which is not enough,” she says.  

Knowledge sharing 

Sharing her knowledge through the publication of over 60 internal and external papers over 20 years has been a driving force in her work. 

“One of my motivations is to share knowledge with more people. If we don’t publish our work, it remains in the minds of those involved. Moreover, only when starting to write does one get more serious about what to say and to value every word used. It is also an effective way of learning. Publishing doesn’t mean that everyone reads it, I know that, I’m not naïve, but it’s better than not publishing at all, in my opinion, and I like to leave behind knowledge for the institution,” she says.