Building capacities for a more sustainable future of our planet and its people is the common denominator of a lifetime career across continents. A fascination for how people learn and a passion for sustainable development have been the key drivers. The journey started lecturing in higher professional education. Sustainable tourism became the catalyst, as it touches upon so many dimensions: communities, rural development, nature conservation, value chains, MSME development… I combined curriculum development, teaching, research projects with international capacity building and training programs. I was consultant to PAN Parks, a project of Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) aiming to blend  conservation excellence with tourism. National park management and community based tourism became a focus and fed curriculum development. Africa became a fascination. I worked and lived in Ghana from 2009-2018. First as destination manager under international cooperation. For SNV I also managed a training program for disadvantaged youth in the hospitality industry. Value chain analysis is a great tool for MSME development. Work for a local NGO took me back to community resource management at landscape level. Understanding local realities and stakeholders, creating perspectives, making it happen in a common effort.

TVET in the tourism and hospitality sector has been a constant factor. Developing and implementing training programs and curricula from community level to master programs. Training disadvantaged youth for employment in Ghana. 2018-2022 I was implementing and managing a TVET-project for GIZ InS under Mastercard Foundation in the Rwandan tourism and hospitality sector: employability through international quality standards. A comprehensive, high-impact approach from policy level to curriculum development, ToT, career guidance, workplace learning and upskilling of working youth directly impacted 10,500 youth in 2021-2022 alone.