Since 01 January 2020 she is the Head of Skills Identification and Development Unit, within the Knowledge Hub department of the ETF. As Head of Unit, Manuela is responsible for steering ETF’s work in the area of skills relevance and anticipation, development of skills and validation, leading the knowledge co-creation and sharing across ETF partner countries, with the EU and the international community.
At the ETF Manuela served as Policy Advisor to the Director in 2019-20 and as Acting Head of the Strategic Development Department in 2018. Manuela lead the development of the ETF’s Strategy 2027 approved by the ETF’s Governing Board in June 2019. She coordinated the work of the ETF in 2020 in responding to demands generated by the impact of COVID-19 on partner countries.
Prior to her at strategic level, she has been the team leader of the flagship project ‘Torino Process’ from 2015 to 2018 leading the implementation of the fourth round of the project covering 25 partner countries. She joined ETF in 2008 as country manager for Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, and became in 2010 the team leader for the School Development Project in Central Asia. In 2011 she joined the Evidence based policy making department leading the capacity building actions of the department in more than 10 countries across all regions covered by the ETF. In 2013 she took over the leadership of the Governance Community of Practice under the Thematic Development Department and coordinating ETF policy development on capacity building. Since her starting days at the ETF, Manuela has been involved in several corporate activities and transversal work across departments including actions focused on quality assuring and improving ETF effectiveness and efficiency.
Prior to working at the ETF, Manuela worked as Social Sector Specialist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila (Philippines) with the Central and West Asia Department, leading from 2006 the education portfolio in the region including primary, secondary and Vocational Education projects and loan programmes. She joined the ADB in 2004 as a Young Professional.
Manuela worked from 2002 to 2004 as Junior Professional Associate at the World Bank (Rome and Paris) with the European human resources unit focusing on management and talent selection, as well as the external relation unit focusing on civil society and NGOs in Italy.