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Kari P Hadjivassiliou

Principal Researcher / Consultant

k.hadjivassiliou@tavinstitute.org

+44(0)20 7417 0407

I am a Principal Researcher and Consultant, specialising in EU work.

Areas of expertise

I have over 27 years of experience in international comparative research and evaluation experience in the fields of employment and labour markets, including:
  • youth labour markets,
  • school-to-work transitions and career trajectories and
  • inclusion of young people across the EU;
  • welfare policies; education and training systems; and
  • human and social capital development.
Over the years I have accumulated considerable experience in designing, conducting and managing large scale and complex EU-wide studies and evaluations; co-ordinating EU-wide networks and partnerships and managing international project teams; developing good working relationships with clients, including EU institutions; and planning, organising and carrying out dissemination activities.

Methodology and approach

My interest and expertise lie in EU-wide research and policy, programme and process evaluation with a stakeholder and formative element. My approach to evaluation has been heavily informed by my work at the Tavistock Institute in the late 1990s and 2000s. Consequently, I have been applying participatory, mixed-method approaches to evaluation which are embedded in a particular context – socio-economic, institutional, political, technological, organisational. I draw on Tavistock’s long-standing tradition in socio-technical systems and systems thinking together with its focus on system psychodynamics and action research. I am particularly interested in theory-based evaluations that can be combined with action learning and reflexive practice.

Current and recent projects

Over the years, I have been involved in a large number of projects in relation to European education, skills and employment policies:

Social inclusion

I was the Project Director for DG JUST’s follow-up study on trade union practices on non-discrimination and diversity and the DG EMPL’s study supporting the 2020 evaluation of the ESF support to promoting social inclusion, combating poverty and discrimination.

Upskilling, apprenticeships and adult education

While at ICF, I was the Project Director for the Cedefop’s study on VET for labour market integration and social inclusion and the Cedefop’s project on long-term apprenticeship mobility across the EU. While at IES, I was the project manager for Cedefop’s EU-wide study on the economic and social costs of low skilled adults in the EU, and more recently, I was involved in Cedefop’s study on the role of work-based learning (WBL) in developing Upskilling Pathways for adults. I have also been involved in an EU-wide study on upskilling and in-work progression for vulnerable groups – young people, migrants and older workers (for JP Morgan Chase Foundation). I was part of the core team and Work Package 3 lead (Comparative Overview) for the EU-wide project STYLE - Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe. I was the policy manager for the EU-wide technical assistance project Advice on ESF Support to Apprenticeship and Traineeship Schemes, for DG EMPL. As part of this project I was the co-ordinator of the European Commission‘s Guidebook for Policy Planners and Practitioners on apprenticeship and traineeship schemes in the EU-27. I led the first EU-wide study on traineeships in all 27 Member States (for DG EMPL). This study informed the European Quality Framework for Traineeships which was adopted by the EU Council of Ministers in 2014.

Employment, including youth employment

I was the project manager for the Eurofound’s study on the characteristics, regulatory frameworks, spread and implications of casual work in the EU, while I was also involved in the ESPON’s study on the geography of new employment dynamics in Europe, where I led the qualitative part of the research, including the scenario building/foresight work. I also was part of the core team and Work Package 3 lead (Comparative Overview) for the EU-wide project STYLE (Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe) – the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme’s 4-year research project on youth unemployment in the EU. I have re-joined the Tavistock Institute from ICF where, as a Technical Director I was responsible for research and evaluation projects in the fields of European education, skills and employment policies. Before joining ICF in 2018, I had worked for over nine years at the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and prior to that for 12 years at the Tavistock Institute, including a two-year secondment at the European Commission.

Publications include