Jennifer Coupland announced as new CEO for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

Today (15 July) the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute) has announced that Jennifer Coupland will be joining as Chief Executive Officer from November this year.

Jennifer is currently the Director of Professional and Technical Education in the Education and Skills Funding Agency, part of the Department for Education, and was previously Acting Chief Executive of the Standards Testing Agency.

Prior to that Jennifer spent three years as the Deputy Director of the Apprenticeships Unit where she was responsible for apprenticeship reform including creating new apprenticeship trailblazers, degree apprenticeships and the public sector apprenticeship duty.

Jennifer will replace Sir Gerry Berragan, the current Chief Executive, who was appointed to the post in 2017 and completes his 2 year contract in November 2019.

Antony Jenkins, Chair of the Institute said:

“We are delighted to be able to announce that Jennifer will be joining the Institute later this year. She has a huge wealth of knowledge and experience in further education and, in particular, apprenticeships that will be integral to further developing the work of the Institute. She will already be a familiar face to many of the people in the Institute and I am sure they, like me, are looking forward to working with her more closely. I should also like to thank Sir Gerry for his excellent work as CEO. He has made a huge contribution to the work of the Institute.”

Anne Milton, Apprenticeships and Skills Minister said:

“My very sincere congratulations to Jennifer Coupland on her new role. Jennifer has shown outstanding leadership on the vital work to deliver the new T Levels. Jennifer was also closely involved previously in our reform programme for apprenticeships. I have no doubt that she has exactly the right skills and knowledge we need to lead the Institute through its next phases of its development. I wish her every success in her new role.”

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe says:

“AELP is delighted that in Jennifer the new chief executive of IfATE will have an outstanding background in both apprenticeships and T levels.  We hope that this will be the dawn of a new era at the Institute which will combine practical common sense and good policy implementation.  AELP is really excited to be working with her.”

Jennifer Coupland said:

“I am really excited about taking on this new role later in the year. For the past two years I have been working closely with Sir Gerry and seeing at first-hand the great work the Institute is doing, and the great people that work there. I am looking forward to leading the Institute into the future of technical education – delivering the first wave of T Levels; working closely with employers to develop apprenticeships that deliver for our learners and our economy; and making England the standard for high-quality technical education.”

The Institute is a crown, non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department of Education (DfE). The Institute ensures high-quality apprenticeship standards and advises government on funding for each standard.

The Chief Executive is responsible for the leadership and day-to-day management of the Institute. The Chief Executive is also Accounting Officer for the Institute’s budget and is accountable to the DfE’s Principal Accounting Officer, and to Parliament for the stewardship of these funds.