FORMER skills minister Robert Halfon and ex-schools minister Nick Gibb are making a return to the Department for Education’s ministerial team reports FE Week.

The pair were announced as new ministers of state in the DfE tonight as part of prime minister Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle.

Their roles are likely to be confirmed in the coming days, but FE Week understands that Halfon will return to skills and Gibb will return to schools.

Halfon held the skills brief from 2016 to 2017 before being sacked. He then became the chair of the education select committee and has held the role since.

Gibb had served as schools minister for most of the last ten years before being sacked last year by Boris Johnson.

Their appointments come as Sunak is reportedly planning education reforms including a new “British baccalaureate”, which is an idea favoured by Halfon and would require children to study a wider range of subjects in post-16 education, with English and maths compulsory.

The prime minister will also announce plans for a network of elite technical institutions, the Times reported.

Former skills minister Gillian Keegan was announced as the new education secretary yesterday.

The appointments mark a shift in experience at the department, whose ministers had much less experience both as MPs and in senior roles.

A new education committee chair will also now need to be appointed.