Kirsty Evans has been confirmed as the director of further education at the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
Ms Evans was previously responsible for the ESFA’s adult education funding operations, and has been acting FE director since April 2020, overseeing the coordination of the ESFA’s response to Covid-19.
A statement on the ESFA website said: “Under Kirsty’s leadership, the FE directorate will deliver key priorities including supporting the sector to engage and identify skills needs of local learners, employers and stakeholders to meet the ambitions of the FE White Paper, and enabling the sector to play a vital role in building back better and supporting recovery from the pandemic through high-quality skills, training and job opportunities.
“The FE directorate will help to realise these priorities by working across ESFA to promote financial health and efficiency in the sector through effective oversight, monitoring and, where necessary, intervention, as well as ensuring that providers, as users of ESFA systems and services, receive timely and accurate information, allocations and payments so they are in the best position to deliver world-class training and skills.”
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In September 2020, at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ Business Recovery Conference, Ms Evans said the ESFA was taking active steps to improve its relationship with independent training providers.
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She admitted that the agency did not “have a close enough relationship with ITPs” and said that the aim was to help the ESFA “improve the ways of working with all ITPs regardless of size” and “better understand your current challenges and particularly the impact on resilience that Covid-19 may have caused”.
She said: “We do want our relationship with you to reflect the important role that ITPs plays in our skills, infrastructure. And really, as part of that, recognising the key role that you’re going to play in supporting employers and the economy to recover as we move forward.
“It’s probably fair to say that our current ways of working mean that we don’t have a close enough relationship with ITPs, particularly with our large providers, to really understand their priorities and their vulnerabilities.”
