Former Michael Gove advisor Sam Freedman has announced he is leaving the Teach First teacher recruitment charity.

Mr Freedman will become chief executive of Ark’s Education Partnerships Group (EPG) in June which, according to its website, works “to help ensure that children across the world have access to high quality, inspirational education”.

He worked at the DfE during Mr Gove’s turbulent period as education secretary, which saw the rapid growth of the academy system and the introduction of free schools.

Mr Freedman tweeted: “I’m leaving @TeachFirst in June to take up the post of CEO at @EPG_Edu, a charity that works with governments in the developing world to reform their education systems. Currently they’re leading projects in India + across sub-Saharan Africa.”

He said that he had had “a brilliant five years” at Teach First, “overhauling our approach to teacher training”.

He added: “I’ve always wanted to work in international education at some point + I can think of few more crucial challenges for the world over the coming decades than improving educational opportunities for young people in developing countries.”

Teach First recruits high-flying graduates into teaching, putting them into schools in low-income areas.

Its chief executive Russell Hobby said: “You can see the mark of Sam’s impact across the whole organisation. Sam joined us in 2013, and continued our journey as one of the largest and most prestigious graduate recruitment schemes in the country.

“Since then we have developed a leading post graduate diploma for our participants and our recruitment numbers have been sustained in the face of challenging conditions.”

David Laws, a Lib Dem schools minister during the coalitions, and now executive chairman of EPG, said: “Sam has spent his whole career in education and he will now be able to use this experience to help governments and other stakeholders in Africa, Asia and beyond, to deliver on their priorities of improving education quality for children from all backgrounds.

“In all countries, good quality education should be a right for every child, not just a privileged minority.”

As well as becoming a familiar fixture at education conferences and research events and through his Tes articles, Mr Freedman is a high-profile commentator on Twitter, with almost 33,000 followers.