The VETNET General Assembly at ECER 2011 in Berlin decided to invite Martin Mulder (Wageningen, the Netherlands) and Sabine Manning (Berlin, Germany) as the first Honorary Fellows of the network. The VETNET General Assembly at ECER 2015 in Budapest decided to invite Pekka Kämäräinen (Bremen, Germany and Finland) as Honorary Fellow of the network.

Martin Mulder:

Martin Mulder was already an active team member in preparing the pilot ECER in 1992 (Enschede). During the following years he was involved in initiatives to launch a European network for research in VET and HRD (with a conference tradition of its own). In the founding phase of EERA he became the Dutch member of the EERA Council and took the initiative to set up the VETNET as an EERA network. From ECER 1996 (Sevilla) to ECER 2000 (Edinburgh) he served as the coordinator of the network and chaired the work of the executive board. After moving to Wageningen he was involved in developing the Cedefop journal into a Europe-wide research journal in VET. During his working period in Thessaloniki he tried to secure the basis for the journal (which unfortunately was abolished). When returning to Wageningen he made a comeback to the VETNET board and has been actively encouraging younger Dutch researcher to engage themselves in European cooperation and in VETNET activities.

The VETNET network honours Martin Mulder for the initiative to launch the VETNET network, for chairing the network during the early years, for his engagement in promoting journals for European VET research and for his long-term commitment to the development of European VET research community.

Sabine Manning:

Sabine Manning was already involved in comparative educational research before the 1990s. After 1990 she established herself and the WiFo Research Forum with comparative studies on vocational education and training (VET). During the early years of the Leonardo da Vinci programme she worked with projects that studied integration of general and vocational (Intequal) and dually oriented qualifications (Duoqual).These projects and the parallel projects (Post-16 strategies and Spes-Net, led by Johanna Lasonen) were regularly present at the ECER conferences with their joint symposia. The cooperation of the two coordinators was continued by joint follow-up studies and by cooperation in preparing the VETNET programme (and the VETNET proceedings) for ECER 1999. After this period Sabine Manning proceeded with initiatives to shape European information services in VET research – currently known as the “WiFo gateway to research on education in Europe”. In this context she developed the tradition of electronic VETNET proceedings starting from 2000 and continuing up to present date. For most European VET researchers she is known as the editor of the Newsletter for European Research in Learning and Work [L&W].

The VETNET network honours Sabine Manning for her contribution to the VETNET Board during the early years, for her engagement in European cooperation projects and their joint activities and for her long-term commitment to the development of research-oriented information services for the European VET research community.

Pekka Kämäräinen

Honorary Speech by Martin Mulder: “It is an enormous pleasure and a great honour for me to hand out an Honorary Membership of VETNET. The Honorary Membership goes to one of the senior members of the VETNET community. He is a co-founding member of VETNET, Since 1996 in Sevilla. He was working at Cedefop at the time when he joined VETNET. At that time Cedefop was research-oriented and still had its journal; that has all changed, but not because of the new Honorary Member; he was very much in favour of research and cherished the research community. He has been promoting VETNET in various international circles, such as UNESCO. He probably speaks most languages from all of us. Maybe he also speaks the most complex sentences. Phrases I remember well: “I am supporting the networking of networks”. And: “There is quite some heterogeneity in the constellation of infrastructures of VET organizations.” Maybe this complex speaking is a consequence of the complex spelling of his name. A major characteristic of him is: he was always there and active. Another thing: he is the living memory of VETNET! In a blog of a couple of years ago about the history of VET, he held a plea for “How do we valuate progress in research on VET, in VET and for VET given the diverse and dynamic backgrounds individual members come from.” I cannot agree more that this is important, and I think we came a long way, also because of our new Honorary Member: Pekka Kämäräinen.”