Alessandra Molz first got interested in development, education and labour market issues when, after high school, she spent a year working as a volunteer on an educational project in rural Mexico.

This experience motivated her to study Political Science at the Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany, and to specialize in international relations and labour sociology. She also obtained a postgraduate degree in development politics from the German Development Institute.

A German national, Alessandra has lived and worked in many countries, including Mexico, Portugal, Ghana, Yemen, Peru, Italy and Greece.

In 1998, she joined the ILO, where she worked at the sub-regional office for the Andean countries in Lima, Peru, running technical co-operation projects and carrying out research into employment generation, vocational training and crisis response.

Alessandra has worked for the ITC-ILO since 2005. She designs and runs learning events and projects on vocational training, labour market policy and social inclusion, and coordinates the Centre’s “ILO Skills Development Academy”.

In 2009 and 2010, she took up a secondment with Cedefop (the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece), where she carried out research on social inclusion and vocational training in EU Member States.