Skills for business

Jennifer Coupland took up post as Chief Executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education in November 2019. Her previous role was Director of Professional and Technical Education in DfE for three years, where she was responsible for T Level development and delivery, the L3 and below qualifications review and the Higher Technical Reforms.

Prior to that, Jennifer was Acting Chief Executive of the Standards and Testing Agency, where she oversaw the Agency’s work on primary school assessment policy and operational delivery. Before that, she spent three years as the Deputy Director of the joint DfE/BIS Apprenticeships Unit.

Previously Jennifer was the Deputy Director in the Department for Education responsible for the early stages of Traineeships development as well as Raising the Participation Age, careers and NEET policy.

Jennifer began her career in the Employment Service where she ran a benefit section in a local office and delivered a range of programmes to support long term unemployed people into work. Since moving to central Government Jennifer has worked on a number of policy areas including: benefits, schools and post-16 education.