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Building the Digital Path to Responsible AI for Public Employment Services
Online
WEBINAR: Building the Digital Path to Responsible AI for Public Employment Services
Online, 03 December 2025, 13:00 CET
Join WCC and WAPES for a two-hour webinar exploring how digitalisation and responsible AI are transforming public employment services worldwide. With expert insights and real-world case studies from Costa Rica, Malaysia, and Europe, we’ll discuss practical strategies for preparing labor markets, empowering caseworkers, and strengthening workforce readiness.
The event will be held in English, but interpretation will be available in Spanish and French.
Webinar Agenda
13:00 – 13:05 Welcome & Opening Remarks (5 mins)
13:05 – 13:25 Part 1 Digitalization and use of AI in PES (20 mins) Dr. Willem Pieterson (Researcher & Domain Expert)
13:25 – 13:30 Poll question (5 mins)
13:30 – 13:50 Part 2 Data, Digitalisation, and Responsible use of AI (20 mins) Dr. Alexander Hogenboom (CTO, WCC Group)
13:50 – 14:00 Q&A with Domain experts (10 mins) Open discussion with Dr. Willem Pieterson and Dr. Alexander Hogenboom after the first 2 presentations.
14:00 – 14:15 Part 3 Digital Transformation of Public Employment Services in Malaysia (15 mins)
M. Ir. Ts. Mohamad Fahrurrazi Bin Kamaludin (Head of Labour Market Modelling Section, Malaysia PES PERKESO)
14:15 – 14:20 Poll question (5 mins)
14:20 – 14:35 Part 4 Preparing the Workforce for the Future in Costa Rica (15mins) Mrs. Vanessa Gibson (Director of Investment Climate, CINDE Costa Rica)
14:35 – 14:55 Interactive Panel Discussion & Final Q&A (20 mins)
14:55 – 15:00 Closing Remarks (5 mins)
Speaker
Strategic researcher and consultant
Willem Pieterson, is a researcher and consultant who specializes in public service delivery, channel management, digitalization and the use of data within government. He works as an independent advisor for governments and public sector agencies globally as well as being a visiting scholar at the IT University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
He has worked with public employment services and employment agencies for more than fifteen years. These include the European Commission’s PES network, the OECD, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES) and a large number of government agencies globally.
He has published over 50 academic articles, book chapters, conference papers and reports on public service delivery, channel management, digitalization, and use of data in the public sector.
CTO WCC Group
Alexander Hogenboom has a passion for making a positive impact on the world by harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence in a socially responsible, ethical, and pragmatic way. In this light, the application of transparent and controllable algorithms has been a recurring theme in both his academic and professional career. With WCC, where he currently fulfills the role of CTO, Alexander has accumulated many years of experience in leveraging both human and artificial intelligence by responsibly combining domain knowledge and data-driven insights in the employment domain.
Director, Investment Climate, CINDE Costa Rica
Vanessa Gibson Forbes is the Investment Climate Director for the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency, CINDE.
Vanessa has worked at CINDE for over 25 years already; she started out as economic researcher, and three years later, she assumed the position of manager for the Services Sector. In 2009, she was promoted to Aftercare Director.
During her years as Service Sector Manager, Ms. Gibson promoted a series of initiatives not only to attract multinational companies, but to consolidate the Service Sector Cluster. This was coupled with an aggressive company attraction strategy, as well as the development of public-private partnership programs to invite the already installed firms to expand and diversify their operations in the country.
In her current position as the Investment Climate Director, she oversees the guidance of the companies throughout the installation process, the coordination of several public-private partnership projects and programs, which aim to improve the investment and business environment of Costa Rica.
Vanessa is an Economist and holds her licentiate degree in Economics from the University of Costa Rica. She also has a Master’s in development Program and Project Evaluation from the University of Costa Rica as well, graduated in 2006.
Prior to her time in CINDE, she worked at the Central Bank of Costa Rica as an economic assistant to the Agricultural Economics Department.
Head of Labour Market Modelling Section, PERKESO
Mohamad Fahrurrazi bin Kamaludin is a seasoned technology professional and data scientist with nearly three decades of experience spanning consumer, enterprise, and regulatory domains. He currently leads the development of AI-driven labour market frameworks, machine learning models, and visualization tools to support national employment strategies since 2021.
Prior to PERKESO, he held senior roles in data science consultancy at The Center of Applied Data Science (2019) and in higher education as Head of the Student Success Centre at Taylor’s University (2017).
His earlier career included leadership in project management, network engineering and analytics at Maxis Communications Berhad (1996). Mr. Fahrurrazi is a Professional Engineer (Board of Engineers Malaysia) and a Professional Technologist (Malaysia Board of Technologists). He holds a Master of Applied Statistics from Universiti Malaya (2018) and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, USA (1996). His expertise spans data wrangling, statistical analysis, econometrics, time-series and machine learning modelling, and data storytelling using open-source Python, SQL and Tableau.
WAPES Consultant
Nicole Clobes is a consultant at the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES), seconded by the German Federal Employment Agency. She holds degrees in communication, education, and organizational psychology and is a certified intercultural trainer. Since 2016, Nicole has worked in public employment services in both frontline and managerial roles. She has co-authored international publications with the OECD, the Inter-American Development Bank, the ICCDPP, and the University of Derby, and chairs the WAPES International Working Group on Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence.
Employment Domain Specialist, WCC Group
Dovile Makutenaite is passionate about transforming public employment services through technology that reflects real labour market needs. As Employment Domain Specialist, Dovile connects policy, data, and user experience to shape WCC’s solutions that are compliant, intuitive, and impactful. By aligning product features with labour market trends and client workflows, Dovile helps drive adoption, trust, and long-term value for government agencies, job seekers, and employers.