As Head of the Academy, it's up to me to ensure it provides an effective service. My colleagues and me help staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ) to improve their skills and knowledge, whether they are in The Hague or at a mission. We also work with other central government staff in international roles, helping equip them for their tasks of realising BZ's strategic goals and working on international issues and preparing them for the future. This enables our ministry to meet its legal requirement to train and educate its staff, and it helps prepare teams and individual staff members to respond to future developments.

The Academy contributes to BZ as a learning organisation by continually strengthening professionalism, encouraging professional development and promoting sustainable employability. We offer a wide range of learning activities, from diplomatic training to courses on leadership and management, and from professional skills to personal development. We also help BZ purchase learning activities and make them available to staff via our digital learning portal. And we play a role in policy development, advising on issues relating to language policy, deciding on learning activities and developing learning pathways for job groups.

With great pleasure and drive, I work with my colleagues from the Academy and the Human Resources Department and other stakeholders to make BZ even stronger.