One of the government’s top skills civil servants is set to leave after more than 20 years in the Department for Education.
Kirsty Evans will leave her current role as the DfE’s director of post-16 regions and FE provider oversight in March to join the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) as an executive principal.
It marks the latest in a string of well-known and high-ranking skills civil servants to leave the DfE and Education and Skills Funding Agency in recent years. Other high-profile departures include Keith Smith, Peter Mucklow and Paul Kett.
Evans is a popular face in the FE sector having held various senior roles in the civil service since the days of the Learning and Skills Council in the 2000s.
She was also deputy director of funding policy implementation in the then-Skills Funding Agency, before holding posts as director of apprenticeships, director of further education, and director of funding and programmes in its successor the ESFA.
She is currently responsible for effective oversight of the FE sector and FE providers in the DfE, as well as the delivery of key policy programmes such as local skills improvement plans.
The DfE confirmed Evans is leaving the department to take up a new role at the CITB, but wouldn’t say what the plans were for replacing her.
CITB is the industry training board for the construction sector in England, Scotland, and Wales. It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the DfE.
The organisation is currently led by chief executive Tim Balcon and chaired by former ESFA chief executive Peter Lauener.
Balcon said: “We are delighted that, as of 25 March 2024, Kirsty Evans will be joining the CITB executive team as executive principal, National Construction College.
“With her exceptional past experience at the Department for Education, as well as the ESFA and Skills Funding Agency, Kirsty will bring a wealth of expertise spanning a wide range of education policy and operational programmes, including apprenticeships.”
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