Guild (formerly Guild Education) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

company headquartered in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

that is employed by Fortune 1000 companies to manage their education assistance benefits. Guild works for corporate employer clients to facilitate direct payment for courses to education provider clients and offers marketing services to the education provider clients.

Business strategy

Guild Education works for large corporations and contracts with adult education providers. It offers marketing services and receives payment from schools only when students enroll. The employers also get a tax break. In June 2021, ''

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

'' reported Guild Education also seeks to profit from its expectation of automation increasing displacement of workers. In 2018,

The Century Foundation The Century Foundation (established first as The Cooperative League and then the Twentieth Century Fund) is a progressive think tank headquartered in New York City with an office in Washington, D.C. It was founded as a nonprofit public policy ...

contributor Kelia Washington wrote "at best, these programs are limited in their ability to meaningfully increase college access and completion, and, at worst, they can create additional barriers for employees seeking to obtain high-quality, meaningful credentials."

History

In November 2022, Guild Education reduced its office space in Denver by 50 percent.

Corporate clients

Guild Education clients include major corporations and

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

companies, including Dollywood Parks and Resorts,

Macy's, Inc. Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito' ...

Sunrun Sunrun is an American provider of photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company was established in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Since its inception, the c ...

Target Corporation Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...

, and

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

Education provider clients

Education provider clients include colleges and universities, such as:

Herzing University Herzing University is a private university with its headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and several locations throughout the United States. The university offers degrees in professions including nursing, technology, business, and healthcare. H ...

North Carolina A&T North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

, Pathstream,

Paul Quinn College Paul Quinn College (PQC) is a Private college, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black African Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist college in Dallas, Texas. The college is affiliated with the African Methodist E ...

,and

Purdue University Global Purdue University Global, Inc (PG), formerly Kaplan University, is a public university, public Distance education, online university that operates as a public-benefit nonprofit corporation, public-benefit corporation and is part of the Purdue Un ...

. In 2021, 2U made its degree programs, courses, and bootcamp programs available to the corporations that employ Guild.

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

also made Google Career Certificates available to corporations that employ Guild.

Shareholders and investors

In 2019, existing and new investors contributed to a Series D round. In 2021

Lumina Foundation Lumina Foundation is a private, Indianapolis-based foundation with about $1.4 billion in assets. Since its founding in August 2000, Lumina has made grants totaling more than $250 million. History Lumina Foundation is a conversion foundation crea ...

became a shareholder in Guild Education. In 2022,

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...

became an investor.

References