Lea

Schomaker

I am a sociologist and political scientist interested in youth, social and education policy, matters of social inequality and inclusion as well as health and well-being. I joined the University of Luxembourg in July 2020 and will primarily be working on the Youth Survey.

I hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Hamburg and a Master’s degree in Comparative Public Policy and Welfare Studies from the University of Southern Denmark. Whilst carrying out my Master studies, I was awarded the Talented Student Grant from the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies (DaWS) enabling me to undertake research into the inclusion of refugees into higher education in Germany and Sweden.

As part of my Master’s programme, I completed an internship in the Economic Policies Unit of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels, where I focused on research projects in the field of ageing societies and European pension systems. Here, I collaborated on a study about the effect of grandparental childcare on parent’s labour supply in 12 European countries. After my placement at CEPS, I undertook a traineeship in the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) in Brussels, where I conducted research in the field of (European) education and social policies. Throughout the traineeship, I was writing policy briefs as well as in-depth research papers on the role of the European Union in higher education and the future challenges education systems might be facing around the globe.

Since January 2020, I have also been working with the Technical University of Stockholm (KTH Stockholm) on a number of research projects and grant applications related to the Software Development Academy (SDA) which helps migrants integrate into the Swedish job market and provides an intensive (re-)training programme for software developers.