News | City & Guilds Foundation

Outstanding careers – City & Guilds as a golden thread

by Joanna Najjar | 1 Oct 2020 | News, Our networks, President's Award, Prince Philip Medal

Prince Philip Medal… and the medallist is Craig Thomson This award inaugurated by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh back in 1962 recognises an individual who has followed the City & Guilds path and has achieved significant success in their field or profession. This year we are delighted to recognise the career of Craig Thomson FCGI, Director, HMP Kilmarnock. Craig started his career journey over 30 years ago with a City & Guilds Prison Officer/Custodial Care qualification. Since then he...

Interview with… Damien McKnight

by Michael Osbaldeston | 30 Sep 2020 | Awards alumni, Case studies, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, News, Our networks

‘Michael! We haven’t had our letter, were we successful?’ Deep intake of breath… this is the call you don’t want to take. ‘We didn’t did we? And I know why - too soon and not enough evidence!’ And from that very perceptive response by Damien McKnight, Training Apprenticeship & Development Manager at Dovecote Park evolved two future very successful applications in 2018 and 2020 for recognition through the Princess Royal...

New skills fund to unlock £500m per year employment potential of UK prison population supporting efforts to rebuild after Covid

by Laura Mountain | 22 Sep 2020 | Critical transition points, Funding, Future Skills Commission for Prisons, News, Our networks, Prisoners and ex-offenders

Unlocking the skills potential of the UK’s prison population could put £500million a year back into the economy in lowering reoffending rates alone[1], a much-needed boost as we seek to rebuild the economy following Covid, new analysis from the City & Guilds Foundation suggests. The findings come as City & Guilds, the leading skills development provider, launches an ambitious new Future Skills Commission for Prisons to use jobs and training to help divert prisoners from committing...

Junior Smart: Meaningful work will keep ex-offenders like me out of prison

by Laura Mountain | 21 Sep 2020 | Case studies, Future Skills Commission for Prisons, News, Our networks, Prisoners and ex-offenders

The Foundation’s Big Idea Fund wants to experiment, to find out what really works so that it can be scaled up and used elsewhere. It is going out to brilliant charities and innovative prison projects that want to partner up and find practical solutions to one of our society’s biggest problems. I believe a big idea like this has never been needed more. View this post on Instagram Meaningful work will keep ex-offenders like me out of prison, writes Junior Smart a member of our Future...

The Clink charity launches Clink@Home takeaway / delivery service

by Stuart Tucker | 20 Aug 2020 | Charity partners, Future Skills Commission for Prisons, News, Our networks, Prisoners and ex-offenders

The Clink Charity has launched a takeaway / delivery service at HMP Brixton called Clink@Home. This has enabled The Clink to keep the restaurant open during lockdown, keeping prisoners employed and allowing them to continue studying towards their qualifications. Great @BBCNews feature showing the impact @TheClinkCharity has on reducing re-offending. If you live within 5 miles of @HMP_Brixton please support #ClinkAtHome - you'll be helping prisoners to continue studying towards their...

UK businesses’ training is recognised by HRH The Princess Royal on her 70th birthday

by Stuart Tucker | 14 Aug 2020 | News, Princess Royal Training Awards

HRH The Princess Royal, President of City & Guilds Group, recognises organisations whose training has delivered measurable business impact Businesses continue to deliver excellent training programmes in the Princess Royal Training Award’s fifth year, despite the impact of Covid Recipients from a wealth of sectors including health and social care, manufacturing, public sector and technology all proved the value of investing in L&D to address a wide range of business needs. 14 August...

Recovery and Resilience report: reskilling our way back into work

by Laura Mountain | 21 Jul 2020 | City & Guilds initiatives, Critical transition points, News, Our networks

The City & Guilds Group's most recent research Recovery and resilience: Reskilling our way back into work surveyed 2,000 working and non-working adults in the UK and found that people from lower socio-economic groups were less likely to believe that they have the support needed to get a new job in several critical areas: Using support from my personal contacts: 24% C2DE vs 35% ABC1 Using support from previous employer: 18% C2DE vs 28% ABC1 Using support from a recruitment consultant: 18%...

Essential financial support now available for social enterprises through £18.7m Covid-19 grants

by Polly Rowe | 14 Jul 2020 | Charity partners, Critical transition points, Funding, News, Our networks

Here at the City & Guilds Foundation, we’re incredibly proud to support UnLtd – a leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in and around the UK. Today, UnLtd have made an exciting announcement about a new Social Enterprise Support Fund. The Fund is directly responding to an urgent need in the sector to help social enterprises change the way they work, make their spaces COVID-secure, and manage liquidity during the next six months. There are five social enterprise support...

Bridging the gap between employer and employee with MyKindaFuture’s Will Akerman

by Laura Mountain | 22 May 2020 | Awareness Raising, Case studies, Charity partners, News, Our networks

City & Guilds has been a strategic partner of MyKindaFuture for a long time. We’ve always been closely aligned with their belief that everyone should have equal power and opportunity to shape their future – wherever they come from, whatever their experience, and whoever they are. In particular, MyKindaFuture has focused on bridging the gap between employer and employee and helping them feel better connected and invested in each other. With businesses facing a huge variety of challenges...

United by purpose – a letter to Princess Royal Training Awards applicants from Princess Anne

by Michael Osbaldeston | 22 May 2020 | News, Our networks, Princess Royal Training Awards

It’s fair to say, that no one alive has ever experienced a time like this. You have to go back to the post-WW1 flu, the cholera epidemics that would lead to modern sanitation, The Black Death and the great plagues. For all of us, it really is unprecedented, and it has led to us adopting working practices that would have been impossible not that long ago. In fact, before the advent of modern technology and the digital age, this would have been truly catastrophic. We simply wouldn’t have been...