Inside the Department for Education and Skills England
Author WIG Date 28 Jan 2025
A recording of the WIG Breakfast Briefing - Inside the Department for Education and Skills England with Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary, and Julia Kinniburgh, Director General, Skills, Department for Education, and Richard Pennycook, Interim Chair, Skills England.
In this unique WIG briefing with the Department for Education (DfE) we will explore the future of skills in boosting economic growth and productivity, and how Skills England plans to unlock the potential for greater cross-sector collaboration.
Watch now to:
- Understand how DfE is aligning the skills agenda to government missions and how this works, in practice
- Gain insights into how the Skills Group is driving collaboration across government
- Explore the role of Skills England and how cross-sector collaboration can support its remit
Closed captions and transcripts are available.
Please note the Q&A is not included in this recording.
To access this resource you must be a WIG member and logged in to our website.
You can register or log-in here.
Speakers
Susan Acland-Hood has been the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education (DfE) since September 2020.
Susan’s previous roles in government include:
- Chief Executive at HM Courts and Tribunals Service - 2016 to 2020
- Director of Enterprise and Growth at HM Treasury - 2015 to 2016
- Director of Education and Funding at the Department for Education - 2013 to 2015
- Policy Advisor on home affairs and justice, and then education policy at Number 10
- Head of Strategy at the Home Office
She has also held senior roles in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and in the Social Exclusion Unit. Her civil service career began in 1999 at the Department for Education and Employment.
Julia Kinniburgh is the Director General for Skills Group, taking on the role in December 2022.
Prior to this she was Director General for Strategy Group from April to December 2022.
Julia’s previous roles in government include:
- Director General for COVID-19 Response and Schools Recovery at the Department for Education
- Director General for the Serious and Organised Crime Group at the Home Office
- director with responsibility for the national curriculum, national qualifications and school accountability at the Department for Education
- senior roles at HM Revenue & Customs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
She has also held roles with the emergency services and local government.
Richard Pennycook CBE is the lead non-executive board member of the Department for Education. He joined in October 2017. In July 2024, he was appointed interim Chair of Skills England.
He is chair of Howdens Joinery Group plc, 2 Sisters Food Group, and On the Beach plc. He is also co-chair of the Retail Sector Council.
Between March 2014 and February 2017, he was chief executive of the Co-operative Group.