The Association consists of:
– the General Assembly (GA)
– the Executive Committee (EC)
– the Secretariat.
The General Assembly is the EBSN’s legislative organ and it delegates the running governance of the network to the Executive Committee.
All eligible members are entitled to participate with one voting member per institution at the annual General Assembly (GA).
A Secretariat has been established to assist the Executive Committee in its functions.
Secretary General
Zoltán Várkonyi
Secretary General European Basic Skills NetworkZoltán is one of the initiators of the Hungarian Association for Lifelong Learning and had a decisive role in developing and promoting the Network of Open Learning Centres in Hungary. Zoltán is a co-founder and director of Progress Development Co., which also functions as a knowledge centre for basic skills teaching & learning for the Network. Progress accommodates EBSN Secretariat in Budapest. He was a member of the EBSN Executive Committee between 2013-17 and the Head of the Secretariat between 2017-23, and he has served as Secretary General since May 2023. As Project Leader for the EBSN Professional Development Series, Zoltán coordinates the production and piloting of OERs & MOOCs in international collaboration.
EBSN Executive Committee
Treasuer
Zsolt Vincze
Association for Lifelong Learning / ALLL, HungaryZsolt Vincze has been working in basic skills development for more than 10 years, being part of the team which developed and promoted the Network of Hungarian Open Learning Centres (NYITOK), an innovative community-based approach for ensuring key competences for adults. Zsolt is also director of Progress Development Co., which functions as knowledge centre for basic skills learning for the NYITOK Network since 2009 as well as implements several national programmes on digital skills development for adults.
Zsolt is member of the EBSN EC and the Treasurer of the Network since 2017. He was Head of the EBSN Secretariat between 2013 and 2017.
Cäcilia Märki
Swiss Federation of Adult Learning / SVEB, SwitzerlandCäcilia Märki has been working for the Swiss Association for Continuing Education (SVEB) since 2012. She is responsible for the SVEB’s basic skills department. Workplace basic skills is an important focus of her activities, along with the support of professional networks and policy development, the professionalisation of trainers and international cooperation in the area of basic skills.
Cäcilia is member of the EBSN EC since 2017.
Dr Samantha Duncan
UCL Institute of Education, UKSam Duncan is currently an Associate Professor in Adult Education and Literacies at the UCL Institute of Education in London, where is she also Co-Director of the International Literacy Centre, Co-Director of the Centre for Post-14 Education and Work and Academic Head of Learning and Teaching for the Department of Education, Practice and Society. Sam’s background is as an adult literacies and language teacher, and since 2005, she has been working in teacher education and literacies research. She is the author of Reading Circles, Novels and Adult Reading Development (Bloomsbury/Continuum, 2012) and Reading for Pleasure and Reading Circles for Adult Emergent Readers (NIACE, 2014). Her most recent research project has been published in the Routledge Literacies series as the book Oral Literacies: When Adults Read Aloud (2021), and Sam is currently exploring the nature and development of the expertise of adult literacies practitioners.
Sam is member of the EBSN EC since 2021.
Alex Stevenson
National Learning and Work Institute / L&W, UKAlex Stevenson is a Head of Programme at Learning and Work Institute (L&W), leading the organisation’s research and development work on adult basic skills and learning in communities. Alex has worked on a range of projects for clients including the Department for Education, the Home Office, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Greater London Authority. Alex’s recent basic skills projects include advising the Government on the feasibility of an online basic skills checker, producing new ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teaching and learning resources for refugees with limited literacy skills, and resources to support volunteers with the delivery of non-formal English language conversation clubs. He led L&W’s development work on the Citizens’ Curriculum, and currently leads a project in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, which explores how the Citizens’ Curriculum can benefit residents with long-term health conditions. Before joining L&W, Alex taught, managed and developed adult basic skills and ESOL provision for over 13 years. Alex is an executive board member at the European Association for the Education of Adults and an executive committee member at the European Basic Skills Network.
Alex is member of the EBSN EC since 2020.
Kees Hoogland
University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, The NetherlandsKees Hoogland is professor of Mathematical and Analytical Competences of Professionals at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht in The Netherlands. He is an expert on basic skills development, especially numeracy. Kees is project leader of several national and European projects on numeracy, such as Common European Numeracy Framework (2018 – 2021) and Numeracy in Practice (2022-2024) with 11 European countries. He is member of the OECD expert group for Numeracy (PIAAC 2nd cycle). Furthermore, he is advisor for policy makers on
all levels on lifelong development and fitting basic skills for the 21st
century.
Kees is member of the EBSN EC since 2022.
Daiana Huber
Center for Promoting Lifelong Learning / CPIP, RomaniaPedagogue and capacity building trainer, working on Lifelong Learning and ERASMUS Programs. Specialised in crimial correctional justice, with targetted interventions in the role of practitioners delivering learning contexts. Since 2006 working in the CPIP Team as project developer and fund raise. Active advocate for the adult education sector and for the recognition of educational sciences in the sector.
Daiana is member of the EBSN EC since 2023.
Damian Fäh
Flying Teachers, SwitzerlandDamian Fäh is a certified education and training manager with seven years of experience in various fields of adult education. He is currently an innovation manager and product developer for Flying Teachers in the fields of basic skills provision, German as a second language and teacher-training. In this function, he is involved, as a consultant, in the modernization of the fide teacher-training modules, the subject of his presentation at this year’s conference. He is also an active teacher-trainer in EUROLTA, SVEB and fide certificate courses, and in basic skills trainings focusing on digital literacy. Before his current position, he managed an integration program for adult refugees, where he developed content, curricula and quality management processes for German, intercultural competence and job-application training and also worked as a trainer in these subjects.
Damian is member of the EBSN EC since 2023.
