City & Guilds is a global leader in skills development and apprenticeship schemes, with 2 million learners working on diverse qualifications. The purpose of City & Guilds has remained steadfast for over 145 years – to make a meaningful difference to society through skills that are high quality and meet the demands of our time.
Bean Research has been working with C&G since 2017. Our biggest client, which incorporates a Corporate approach to impact measurement and a Funder approach to impact measurement, is a Charity and has an increasingly important social value lens.
For C&G, we have developed a comprehensive Theory of Change to capture the global impact in helping people’s organisations and economies develop their skills for growth, which is reviewed year on year. In addition to the impact report, this year we have worked to map the UK and global reach of C&G.
Our social value work with C&G has allowed the organisation to really understand how it supports and creates change – whether that be within learning providers, employers or the Ministries of Education & Skills. As part of this, we created a menu of social value commitments to support the organisation in working with the governments definition of social value.
In the 2024 report, we are now gauging and analysing C&G impact more closely than ever before. The report showcases our work’s positive difference on people’s lives, the organisations we work with, and wider society. Some of the highlights include:
- £15.3 billion contributed to society in social and economic returns in the last year – underscoring the critical role of skills training in economic recovery.
- Green skills certifications increased by 38% on last year.
- 81% of those completing City & Guilds-backed training in adult and youth prison estates now in employment post-release.
- 76% of City & Guilds learners progressed into further education or employment.
- More than 1.6 million people completed a City & Guilds course in 2024.
“We would highly recommend Bean, who have worked across the organisation and with our partners to embed our impact strategy, and feed social value into our procurement in an effective way. We have made significant progress while Charlotte and the team have been working with us.”
Fazia Khan, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs & Foundation, City & Guilds
“We really value Charlotte’s work around impact evaluation – and it’s proved invaluable in helping organisations when reaching out to potential partners to have an independent evaluation of their impact. “
Micheal Osbaldeston, Special Adviser , City & Guilds
