It is a great honour for me to lead an Organization with such a great range of activities and programmes in the Greek society and economy: an Organization that has a key role to play in reducing unemployment and increasing employment.

OAED’s greatest challenge and opportunity concerns the matching of supply and demand of qualifications in the labour market, since serious mismatches have resulted from a consistently deficient connection between the education and training systems, on the one hand, and the labour market needs, on the other.

OAED should primarily aim at a better matching of the workforce’s skills with the requirements of the economy by adapting itself to the technological, institutional and financial changes that create demand for new qualifications.

In its mediating role, OAED aims at finding jobs for jobseekers and protecting them from impoverishment. Further, it effectively contributes to covering the needs of employers for well-trained staff.

As it is the central operational arm for combating unemployment, OAED must become synonymous with employment, play an enhanced institutional part in the way the labour market functions, broaden the range and quality of its services for jobseekers and employers, and serve all citizens more promptly through automated and simplified online procedures.

It is through greater openness, new collaborations and innovative initiatives that OAED will come even closer to society and make a valuable contribution to the country’s growth. Thanks to this approach, both the Management and the competent OAED officers throughout Greece, work diligently and methodically, in collaboration with the social partners, toward combating unemployment and making sure that the entire workforce has access to employment.