In September 2025, the Academy for International Relations celebrates its 10th anniversary. For 10 years, the Academy team has been working to help colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other central government staff in international positions to develop themselves further, so that they are prepared for the future, worldwide.
The Academy was established in September 2015 in the light of the recommendations of ‘the Advisory Committee for the Modernisation of Diplomacy’, with the aim of bringing together and improving the international learning offer, thereby facilitating government-wide cooperation on leading diplomacy worldwide.
In this visual story, current and former colleagues briefly take you through how the Academy for International Relations has developed over the past 10 years. From establishment, bringing together and improving the international learning offer, from physical to hybrid and online learning, the launch of the new learning portal, focusing on learning and development at BZ, the development of welcome sessions in The Hague and online for the missions, to learning pathways and the Inclusion Plaza.
Image: © Academy
Onderschrift: Team photograph during the celebration of the establishment of the Academy for International Relations in 2015.
The beginning
‘In the beginning, it was all about pioneering and figuring out exactly what the Academy should be,’ says Emma Linders, a.o. coordinator of the current affairs series at the Academy from 2015 to 2020. ‘The most important thing was to find out what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs needed in both the short and long term.’ ‘A lot has changed in those ten years. The Academy started with a programme budget and a number of temporary colleagues and gradually evolved into a fully-fledged Academy with an extensive and attractive range of courses,’ says Cobi de Kort, Learning and Development & Procurement Advisor at the Academy since 2015.
Image: © Academy
As a team, we worked intensively on building and professionalising the Academy during a conference of Develhub (a network organisation for Learning and Development professionals) in the Efteling. But in between, we also made time to take a ride together in 'the Baron'.
Online learning accelerated rapidly
With the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, working from home brought additional challenges. We didn't just work online: the transition to e-learning and online learning accelerated rapidly. What 2020 taught us is that online learning is a very inclusive way of learning. Never before we experienced such high participation rates from the missions.
Image: © academy
Robin Hagendoorn (assistant at the the Human Resources Department (HDPO)) assists with distributing the final printed study guide in 2021. Since 2022, our online study guide can be found on this website.
The publication of the first study guide
‘What has always stayed with me is how we made the transition from a learning and development department to a fully-fledged strategic Academy,’ says Odette Moreira, senior communications advisor at the Academy from 2017 to 2023. ‘The publication of the first study guide and the moment when the term ‘learning organisation’ really took on meaning, felt like real milestones.’
Learning pathways
In 2021, the Academy team began developing learning pathways for certain job groups at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A learning pathway is like a guide to all logical and relevant learning activities that are appropriate for a particular job group. This means that the learning pathway for your job group clearly shows all the Academy's learning activities that you can use for your position.
Image: academy
Babet Mooij and Jan Willem Naphegyi-Schouw
Intensifying diplomatic knowledge
The Academy team also began working more closely with educational institutions and universities. This included international partnerships, such as with the European Diplomatic Academy, to make greater use of each other's international and diplomatic knowledge.
Image: © Academy
Group photo of the participants of the European Diplomatic Programme, including the Heads of the Academies from the 27 countries of the European Union. This photo was taken in June 2025 in Poland.
More learning activities on Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)
We have started offering more learning activities on Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) to raise awareness among all colleagues worldwide and teach them how they can make an active contribution to an inclusive, socially safe working environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The Inclusion Plaza was further enhanced in 2023 to address and prevent forms of racism and discrimination. We have added narratives from internal and external experts focused on the MFA, and team training sessions on Inclusive Recruitment and Selection, as well as webinars on racism and discrimination to our learning offerings.
Image: © Academy
Managers and coordinators in a conversation during the D&I learning activity ‘Inclusive leadership – connecting differences’.
Onboarding
In 2023, we started with welcome days in The Hague and in 2024 with online welcome sessions for the missions worldwide. These welcome sessions are important to help new colleagues navigate through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to make them feel welcome at the Ministry.
Image: © Academy
Reina Buijs (former head of the Human Resources Department) addresses new colleagues on the first welcome day at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 26 June 2023.
Dirk Jan Koch (Dean of the Academy, 2018–2023) looks back: ‘Can you imagine that 10 or even 5 years ago, we didn’t even have an onboarding course for new employees? We had no learning pathways for different positions, and colleagues often just started courses here and there. By bringing in knowledge from outside, the Academy has ensured that our diplomats can develop their personal and diplomatic skills and professional knowledge, so that they are prepared for the future, worldwide.’
Image: © Academy
In June 2024, we organised the first online onboarding meeting for new colleagues at the missions.
A new learning portal
In 2024, the Academy for International Relations launched its new learning portal. The new learning portal not only makes it easier for our colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other central government staff in international positions to search for and book learning activities. It also brings us a step closer to our goals and ambitions for learning and development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Thanks to the collaboration with IJk, World of Work, Create Learning, HDPO-HRA, the Information and Digital Innovation Department (IDI), SSC-ICT and colleagues from the Academy team, the new learning portal has now been in use for over a year and a half.
Image: © Academy
Group photo with colleagues from the Academy for International Relations, the Information and Digital Innovation Department (IDI), HDPO-HRA, Create Learning, SSC-ICT, World of Work and IJK.
Partner meeting for Learning & Development (L&D)
Every year in April, the team organises a partner meeting for Learning & Development (L&D). There, colleagues from the Academy meet with L&D partners to exchange the latest developments and trends we are experiencing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ) in international work and to discuss experiences in learning behaviour and learning conditions at BZ. In this way, we work together to improve our learning offerings.
Image: © Academy
An unified team
From the start, the team has been a close and sociable team. We organise St. Nicholas evenings with homemade poems, Easter brunches where everyone brings something, and we always have lunch together every Tuesday at the kitchen table on the Rijnstraat in The Hague.
Image: © Academy
St. Nicholas celebration with the team.
Mirella van de Noort – Tijhaar, Head of the Academy for International Relations: ‘I am proud of everyone who has contributed to the development of the Academy and the results we have achieved in recent years. The Retrenchment mean that we will have to do our work with fewer people and a smaller budget. That requires different choices and a different way of working. Precisely in these turbulent times, this also presents an opportunity for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our colleagues abroad. Our global knowledge and expertise are indispensable tools for representing our best interests. That is why we invest in their knowledge and skills, so that they can achieve results in a rapidly changing international context – and help the Dutch people along the way. As a team, we remain committed to having the right people with the right knowledge in the right positions at the right time, thereby contributing to a future-proof Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prepared for the future, worldwide.
Image: © Academy
From left to right upper row: Jan Willem Naphegyi-Schouw, Roos Petersen, Natasja Nikolić, Mark Jacobs, Mirella van de Noort - Tijhaar, Loes Vonk en Anjalie Ramkisor. From left to right row below: Janet Klaassen, Irene Kessels, Babet Mooij, Rianne Zulfiqar-Wezendonk, Gina Meertens, Marijn Maats, David Oey, Tamara Sturing, Alma Ibrahimovic en Sabai Maas. Not in the picture: Cobi de Kort-Parlevliet, Henny Schippers en Frederik Birnie.