We are pleased to announce that Kate Ridley Pepper, Director of Work-Based Skills at the Department for Work and Pensions, will deliver a keynote and Q and A at the Apprenticeships and Training Conference on Day Two.

Kate’s appearance comes at a pivotal moment for the skills system, following the machinery of government changes last year that saw responsibility for several key skills policy areas transfer to the Department for Work and Pensions. In Autumn 2025, Kate moved from the Department for Education to DWP as part of these changes and now leads on work-based skills policy.

Kate Ridley-Pepper is a former educational researcher at the National Foundation for Educational Research. She then spent over a decade in the Department for Education in roles including the Head of Careers and Post-16 Participation and as the Bill Manager for the Technical and Further Education Bill. More recently, she headed up a policy innovation team in the Cabinet Office, led two major improvement programmes within the Home Office (firstly the organisational wide change following the Windrush Scandal and then in crisis management following Afghanistan).

Her keynote will provide a critical update for conference delegates, offering insight into how policy is evolving under the new departmental arrangements and what this means in practice for employers, providers and the wider skills sector. The session will be followed by a live Q&A, giving attendees the opportunity to explore the implications of these changes and the direction of travel for work-based learning.

This keynote will be a must-attend session on Day Two of ATC, offering clarity, context and forward-looking insight at a time of major structural change across skills policy.