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10 April 2026

Tag: DfE

Employers having control over UK skills policy is ‘rhetoric, not reality’

The government should move away from its “unhelpful” mantra of “employers in the driving seat” in UK skills policy because this is “more rhetoric than reality”, new research has suggested. The phrase was coined with regard to further education in the latter years of the Coalition government – 2010-2015. However, the study has found that […]

Public Accounts Committee to quiz top civil servants from DfE, ESFA and IfATE

An influential House of Commons committee will grill officials on the future affordability of the apprenticeships programme on Monday. The Public Accounts Committee will hear from the Department for Education’s permanent secretary Jonathan Slater, the Education and Skills Funding Agency chief executive Eileen Milner, the agency’s director of apprenticeships Keith Smith, and the chief executive […]

DfE department responsible for apprenticeship policy has hardly any apprentices

The division responsible for running and promoting apprenticeships within the Department for Education employs the lowest proportion of apprentices across the whole department. Of the 519 people working within the DfE’s Higher and Further Education office, fewer than 10, which is less than 1 per cent, are apprentices. It is not clear the exact number […]

Second round of T-levels teacher programme opens

Colleges and other post-16 providers are being urged to bid for cash to train industry experts as teachers, in the second round of the Taking Teaching Further scheme. The programme, worth £5 million, seeks to recruit industry specialists and retrain them to work in the post-16 and FE workforce with a particular focus on the […]

DfE in firing line with former skills minister for ‘misrepresentation’ and ‘discourtesy’

Chair of the education select committee Robert Halfon has accused the Department for Education of misrepresentation and discourtesy. Yesterday afternoon the DfE published a blog, aimed at journalists, that claimed the former skills minister gave inaccurate apprenticeship figures in an interview with the BBC Today programme that morning. Mr Halfon says this clearly misrepresented what […]

Public Accounts Committee wants more DfE action on bad apprenticeships

The Department for Education must “weed out” poor apprenticeship provision, the Public Accounts Committee has said. A new report by the group of influential MPs also presses the department to look into whether financial incentives for teacher training deliver value for money, and to increase the number of women studying science, technology, engineering and maths […]

Ex-schools minister proposes DfE shake-up to stop schools and HE favouritism

Education ministers’ portfolios need a major shake-up if the historic favouritism shown to schools and universities is to change, according to a former schools minister. David Laws, who served as schools minister under Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan between 2012 and 2015, believes the current approach is “corrosive of good policy”. In an exclusive interview […]