NFER Chief Executive responds to King’s Speech

In response to the King's Speech this afternoon, NFER Chief Executive, Carole Willis, said:

“NFER welcomes today's announcement which includes a raft of education policies to tackle challenges in the sector. Making teacher recruitment and retention an urgent policy priority, and outlining a strategic approach to provide funding to recruit 6,500 new teachers to the sector, will help ensure a high-quality education for children and young people is delivered.

“Our research shows that currently too many people will not have the essential employment skills that employers need for the future. We hope that the establishment of Skills England will help to address this.

“Reforming the apprenticeship levy is necessary, as our research indicates that the current design of the apprenticeship levy cannot accommodate a large increase in apprenticeship starts among SMEs. We hope that a redesign of the existing levy will ensure that barriers to apprenticeships for young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, will be removed.”