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With a focus on high-impact social investment, recognition and advocacy programmes, the City & Guilds Foundation aims to innovate, celebrate and evaluate opportunities that make a real difference in people’s lives, supporting everyone to succeed, no matter who they are or where they come from.

Information
for Individuals

Information
for Charities

Information
for Employers

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Introduction

We know we can reach more people and have a greater impact when we partner with others. Our growth depends on making significant contributions through the development of new partnerships, propositions and customers. We work with many organisations, generating industry relationships, bringing together networks, providing funding, celebrating best practice and inspiring change.

We understand the value of collaboration. We develop and curate partnerships to ensure greater access and reach, more sustainable funding and enhanced delivery. We connect the unconnected, generate cross-programme collaborations, networks and relationships and create long-term partnerships through the Foundation Collective. And we actively seek opportunities to involve and engage Foundation partners, ensuring seamless integration with wider business opportunities.

In order to consistently deliver disproportionate impact, we remain focused on where we invest money and time, ensuring the outcomes we achieve have as wide a reach and create as great a ripple effect as possible.

We want to engage with more people, organisations, and parts of society that will help us spread the message around the transformative effect of skills development and create more opportunities to deliver our shared purpose.

Individuals

Supporting learners to train and retrain to progress in their careers or begin new ones altogether is central to City & Guilds Foundation’s purpose.

We are dedicated to providing support to people facing barriers or disadvantage, allowing individuals to develop their skills for life and work regardless of their background.

Our funding activities include our bursary programme which supports individuals in genuine financial need to access training programmes to upskill, resources to help those in need, and other socially-centred programmes such as pro bono work.

Bursaries: funding for training

Since 2000, our bursary programme has been helping people in genuine financial need access training so they can develop skills for meaningful employment in key sectors facing skills shortages.

IBM SkillsBuild

SkillsBuild is a learning platform from IBM that offers new and curated digital learning content to help you develop knowledge and skills.

Resources

Through platforms, tools and content, the Foundation offers a range of information, advice and guidance to provide support and enhance opportunities for skills development.

Charities

Committed to sharing knowledge and driving forward skills for growth, City & Guilds Foundation works with many diverse organisations, generating industry relationships, bringing together networks, providing funding, celebrating best practice and inspiring change.

We provide financial backing for charities supporting people on the ground day in and day out, and through our networks, we help charities who support people to find the relevant skills provision.

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We provide grants and wider support to charities that can deliver innovative, practical skills and employment opportunities for individuals facing barriers to work.

The programmes we fund are often experimental in nature, and help prove that through taking a creative, targeted approach to widening talent pools and supporting harder to reach groups, we can build a better, fairer, more productive society.

We are currently focused on:

  • Helping prisoners gain skills and move into lasting employment on release
  • Removing barriers faced by refugees to develop skills and get meaningful work
  • Supporting people at Critical Transition Points in their lives and careers

Future Skills Commission for Prisons

A priority theme for The City & Guilds Foundation over the past five years has been supporting the rehabilitation of offenders and former offenders.

There is a recognised and agreed need to reduce reoffending and evidence shows that upskilling prisoners, together with stable accommodation and support is the most effective way to counter recidivism.

The Foundation is amplifying its work in its area through the launch of The Future Skills Commission for Prisons.

Find out
more

Critical Transition Points

There are points in all our lives where things get difficult, or the future feels unclear and we feel an unsettling lack of control.

For some people, these moments in time can make all the difference to their being able to remain economically active, or resorting to dangerous paths in order to keep afloat.

But with the right support, a successful transition can improve a person’s social, emotional and performance outcomes. Our current projects include helping young people living in areas facing high levels of deprivation to make the transition between school and college; helping women fleeing domestic violence to live and work independently; helping those recovering from addiction to gain employment.

This stream of work is wide ranging and we welcome any ideas on how we can help charities deliver high impact interventions.

Refugee support

Refugee groups have often faced significant trauma, and on arriving in a new country are faced with more barriers. When their basic needs are met, displaced people have the potential to be a rich asset to a society and address skills shortages – whether that’s through using their existing skills or developing new ones.

We are working with charities supporting refugees on the ground, helping them navigate the UK skills system and upskilling or translating skills to meet employer needs and ensure they can gain confidence and work as quickly as possible, and in doing so become financially independent. We are also partnering with UK wide organisations to shift perceptions about what it means to be an education provider or employer of sanctuary for refugees that are highly committed to integrating and contributing to society.

Employers

Committed to sharing knowledge and driving forward skills for growth, City & Guilds Foundation works with many diverse organisations, generating industry relationships, bringing together networks, providing funding, celebrating best practice and inspiring change.

The City & Guilds Foundation works with employers in a variety of ways to support investment in skills development and help businesses to grow through skills education, giving people and organisations the confidence and capabilities to prosper. We also work with employers to identify the need for skills recognition and facilitate the provision of neuro-inclusive workplaces.

Interested in
working with us?

Princess Royal Training Awards

Honouring employers who have created outstanding training and skills development programmes which have resulted in exceptional commercial benefits.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

As employers, it’s our responsibility to learn about the diversity of thought and experiences that exist in our communities and societies. It is also our job to create inclusive, safe, fair workplaces to empower diverse talent.

Neurodiversity Index

We’ve partnered with Do-IT Solutions to find out how well employers support people with neurodiverse traits and to create our first Neurodiversity Index report.

The City & Guilds Foundation is dedicated to recognising and rewarding quality and excellence, promoting the acknowledgement, appreciation and celebration of individuals and organisations who demonstrate commitment and investment in skills development.

Amongst our prestigious awards is the Princess Royal Training Awards which recognises employers who have created outstanding training and skills development programmes resulting in exceptional commercial benefits.

Interested in working with us?

Complete the form below and a member of the team will be in touch.

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