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Funding

The latest stories in this category from the City & Guilds Foundation and our networks.

City & Guilds Foundation awards £25,000 to Citizen Hub to unlock accessible volunteering and skills development

City & Guilds Foundation awards £25,000 to Citizen Hub to unlock accessible volunteering and skills development

by | 6 May 2026 | , , , ,

Citizen Hub has been awarded £25,000 from the City & Guilds Foundation to expand its work in making volunteering more accessible and strengthening community-led support in St Neots and Wimbledon. The funding will be split equally between Citizen Hub St Neots and Citizen Hub Wimbledon, supporting a 12-month programme designed to remove barriers to volunteering and create meaningful pathways into employment and community leadership. The funding will cover essential costs such as travel,...

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Insights from our Transition Commission: Supporting young people at critical life stages

Insights from our Transition Commission: Supporting young people at critical life stages

by | 24 Apr 2026 | , ,

This week, partners from the first round of Transition Commission funding came together to share progress and early learnings from their programmes. While still in the early stages, the discussion highlighted the importance of targeted, local support in helping young people at risk of disengaging from education, training or employment. Why this work matters At the start of our meeting Laura-Jane Rawlings, Chair of our Transition Commission and CEO at Youth Employment UK, gave an update on the...

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Place based skills pathways that start with trust and are leading to work – our Local Community Skills Fund

Place based skills pathways that start with trust and are leading to work – our Local Community Skills Fund

by | 30 Mar 2026 | , , , , ,

Across the UK, people who face the greatest barriers to work often live in the communities least served by mainstream skills provision. They are talented, capable and motivated, but too often held back by structural disadvantage, low confidence, disrupted education, potential trauma, caring responsibilities or simple lack of opportunity. Last year we created our Local Community Skills Fund (LCSF) to respond to this reality. We wanted to back organisations rooted in place, trusted by local...

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City & Guilds Foundation and Offploy partner to Upskill the Voluntary Sector

City & Guilds Foundation and Offploy partner to Upskill the Voluntary Sector

by | 17 Dec 2025 | , , ,

Offploy is delighted to announce a new partnership with the City & Guilds Foundation to provide over 200 professionals in the voluntary sector with scholarships to industry-leading training on supporting people with criminal convictions. Offploy are Princess Royal Training Award recipients and this collaboration builds on the relationship.

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Celebrating 25 years of our bursary programme: Transforming lives, families and communities

Celebrating 25 years of our bursary programme: Transforming lives, families and communities

by | 8 Dec 2025 | , , ,

2025 marks a major milestone: 25 years of the our bursary scheme. In 2000, City and Guilds of London Institute celebrated its Charter Centenary by awarding 100 bursaries and since then the programme has helped thousands of people overcome financial and personal barriers to access the training they need to move forward in life and work. At its heart, the bursary programme embodies the City & Guilds Foundation’s values: creating opportunities for everyone to succeed, no matter who they are...

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City & Guilds Foundation supports women to gain DIY skills through new housing partnership

City & Guilds Foundation supports women to gain DIY skills through new housing partnership

by | 24 Nov 2025 | , ,

City & Guilds Foundation has awarded funding to support a pilot project led by employment support social enterprise Frameworks, in partnership with Build Salford and Salix Homes, a key provider of social housing in Salford. The Women in Maintenance project has so far supported seven female social housing residents to gain home maintenance skills including carpentry, tiling and plumbing - empowering them to maintain their own homes and improving their access to paid work. Four of the...

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£247,000 awarded to support young Londoners’ futures

£247,000 awarded to support young Londoners’ futures

by | 18 Nov 2025 | , , ,

We’re pleased to announce the first round of funding from our newly established Transitions Commission, which has seen us award £247,000 in grants to three London-based charities which are dedicated to helping young people move successfully into education and employment. This initiative comes at a critical time. Across the UK, nearly one million young people are not in education, employment, or training (NEET)—the highest level in over a decade. In London, youth unemployment stands at 14.6%,...

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Transforming access to STEM with EngineeringUK

Transforming access to STEM with EngineeringUK

by | 14 Nov 2025 | , , , , , ,

We’re proud to announce a groundbreaking five-year partnership with EngineeringUK aimed at improving access to high-quality STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) experiences for secondary school students across the UK. This initiative represents a significant investment in the future workforce and a commitment to tackling the persistent skills gap in engineering and technology. Why this work matters and what we’re doing STEM careers are critical to the UK economy, yet many young...

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Co-op’s Levy Share to support UK’s first Prisoner Apprenticeship programme to address rail skill shortages and reduce reoffending

Co-op’s Levy Share to support UK’s first Prisoner Apprenticeship programme to address rail skill shortages and reduce reoffending

by | 29 Jul 2025 | , , , ,

In a first, Co-op and City & Guilds partner to address reoffending and rail skills shortages with guaranteed employment pathways. Co-op to offer a dedicated levy share service to support apprenticeships for serving prisoners who’ll go on to work in the rail sector. The Level 2 Rail Engineering operative apprenticeships will be based at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk delivering vital hands-on training for the UK rail sector. Reoffending costs the UK economy over £21bn a year—this initiative aims...

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Listen. Learn. Support. What Refugee Week Reminds Us about Community

Listen. Learn. Support. What Refugee Week Reminds Us about Community

by | 23 Jun 2025 | , , , , , , , ,

At City & Guilds, we believe in the life-changing power of skills. But we also know that skills alone aren’t always enough to help people succeed. That’s why, through the City & Guilds Foundation we’ve been working with grassroots charities and partners since 2022 to help refugees and displaced people access training, build confidence, and find meaningful work. Here’s a little bit about  the impact we’re making. Since launching our Displaced People Fund in 2022, we’ve: Supported...

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