Agata Smolak is academically and professionally engaged in youth policy as one of the public policies implemented in Poland. When analysing and implementing various aspects related to the policy, she pays special attention to the link between the education sector and the youth labour market. Given these interests, the topic of her dissertation is, “Youth policy in the vocational education sector. A case study of vocational training schools with entrepreneurs’.

As part of her academic work, she conducted three research projects using a range of research methods, tools and techniques used in the humanities. The topics of the research projects concerned the analysis of changes and trends in the education process as well as the labour market. The first project concerned the study of cooperation between the education system and the business sector, the subsequent research concerned the analysis of soft competences (i.e. future competences), as well as professional competences (i.e. hard competences) in the context of the transition of young people from the education system to the labour market and personnel needs of the labour market.

Agata Smolak, holds a master’s degree in social sciences in political science from Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. In addition, as part of an academic exchange programme, she studied at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. During her most recent year-long stay, she analysed public policy initiatives undertaken by the European Union, with a particular focus on youth policy. As part of her scholarship, she completed the course, organised by the European Commission and the Council of Europe, ‘Essentials of youth policy’. She was awarded many national and international scholarships and won the essay competition What is the greatest challenge facing trans- Atlantic relations and how would you overcome it? conducted by the European Academy of Diplomacy in Warsaw, thanks to which she had the opportunity to broaden her knowledge by participating in international internships in, among others, the US Congress in the office of Congressman Frank James Sensenbrenner Jr. in Washington and in the European Parliament as a Schuman Programme intern in Brussels. In addition, she has written for student periodicals as well as the New Journal newspaper in New York.

Currently, Agata Smolak is the president of the NGO Mladiinfo.pl, which is part of a network of organisations working in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. The organisation pursues its goals by implementing innovative projects in the education sector.