Sometimes the stars align, and the cosmos offers an opportunity to make a bold choice that can shape the course of history, do something good for society, and secure a significant boost in investment for the FE and skills sector.
This is exactly what is happening with City & Guilds. In this post-Brexit, post-Covid, government policy-hungry AI-dominated era, delivery of 21st century qualifications, credentials, awards and skills must adapt.
This is why this month we will close a landmark deal which in a single move secures the long-term future of the charity at the same time as bringing significant investment to the commercial awarding and skills businesses. It’s a win-win all round.
In Ann’s case, maybe it’s something to do with getting older – after half century in further education a predilection for legacy has become a preoccupation.
Set this alongside Kirstie’s legendary capacity for innovation and maybe you could have predicted we would come up with something as momentous as the road on which we have now embarked with City & Guilds – or City & Guilds of London Institute, to give it its full Royal Charter title.
This transaction unlocks new and exciting opportunities for the awarding organisation and skills training businesses, enabling continued growth and scale.
Backed by significant investment and infrastructure, the businesses will continue to trade under the world-renowned City & Guilds brand, upholding and promoting the long-standing reputation of City & Guilds throughout the UK and internationally.
The CGLI charity, known as the City & Guilds Foundation, will further its ambition to become an innovative social investor and change maker, continuing to play a significant part in addressing societal and skills needs of the 21st century.
The charity will retain its authority to grant CGLI Fellowships to individuals who achieve educational and vocational distinction and will continue to operate its national employer recognition awards scheme, the prestigious Princess Royal Training Awards.
Almost 150 years ago, the City & Guilds of London Institute broke the mould by creating an organisation, together with City of London livery companies, that served the skills and employment needs of the Second Industrial Revolution.
Now in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is right to take steps to ensure City & Guilds thrives for another century and beyond. We believe that a strengthened City & Guilds Foundation with sound finances, and the resources and people to develop innovative philanthropic ways of working, will enable the funding of a prosperous future for skills which will create greater societal impact and long-term systems change.
What we have announced has been two and a half years in development. There was no crisis, no major financial imperative, no sudden loss of key staff or customers and certainly no lack of confidence in the collective leadership across the City & Guilds group. On the contrary, one option was for trustees simply to carry on.
However, had we chosen that option, City & Guilds could have started to slide imperceptibly into irrelevance.
The board and executive of City & Guilds, led by us both as chair and CEO respectively, decided what could have seemed the easier road to take risked leaving a trail of diminished returns for our successors.
Trustees judged this to be irresponsible and a dereliction of our duties as charity trustees. We chose to face the reality and summon the courage – just as our forebearers did in 1878 – to collectively harness our strategic faculties and commercial acumen to navigate a route forward.
To quote the US poet Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged… and we took the one less travelled by, and that makes all the difference”.
Not sure about the narrative about a “landmark deal” spin!!