DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Guild, a comprehensive education and skilling solution for employers to build talent, announced a year of transformative expansion and impact. AI, automation, and demographic shifts are reshaping the workforce by leaps and bounds, with nearly two-thirds of employers identifying related skills gaps as major barriers over the next five years - driving employers to prioritize workforce skilling to maintain a competitive edge and protect their business operations.
In response, Guild is providing employers with agile talent solutions at scale to help them adapt and ensure resiliency in the face of outsized change, while expanding its foothold in the market. In 2024 alone, the company enabled learners to save more than $1 billion in tuition costs for education and skilling programs—a tremendous milestone for the company that pioneered a new approach to corporate sponsored learning and education, tying programs to business-critical workforce challenges and creating career opportunities for millions of workers.
Product Innovations That Meet Diverse Skilling Needs
This past year, in light of evolving workforce challenges and customer needs for a variety of skilling solutions, Guild introduced a range of product innovations and capabilities available through its newly launched Guild Talent Advantage™, a groundbreaking product suite that integrates education and skilling experiences with AI insights to help leaders address critical talent transformation challenges. Highlights include:
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Expanded learning programs and regions served:
- Guild Grow Global: Global expansion of Guild’s education benefit product, empowering employers to meet global skilling needs.
- Expanded Learning Marketplace: Guild brought in new programs and learning providers, including the launch of a first-of-its-kind Durable Skills Bundle, new Spanish language programming through Aprende Institute, manufacturing essentials skilling, and graduate-level engineering classes offered through a unique, modular approach.
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New solutions to meet employers’ diverse set of skilling challenges:
- Guild Academy: Through the acquisition of Nomadic, a leading capability academy company, Guild introduced Guild Academy, a collaborative learning platform that blends peer interaction, practical application, and expert guidance through cohorted employer-customized learning, helping companies build new capabilities and drive team performance.
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Enhanced insight tools and capabilities to measure and deliver outcomes:
- Lightcast Partnership: Verified skills reporting giving employers consistent and clear visibility into the skills employees are gaining through their Guild programs.
- Career Pathways: A career planning solution that empowers employees to pursue learning programs tied to in-demand career tracks at their employer, while empowering employers to curate their education benefits to activate their workforce and support business strategy.
Persistent Customer Growth & Increased Employee Access to In-Demand Skilling
In 2024, Guild expanded access to more than 465,000 additional employees through new partnerships with leading employers across healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. These and existing partnerships led to 1.4 million eligible members being supported by Guild’s platform to explore opportunities for development and 60,000 employees completing or graduating from learning and skilling programs this year alone. Importantly, 80% of degree and certificate learners enrolled in business-aligned programs and two-thirds of in-progress learners reported they have already gained skills to advance their careers.
“Connecting education and skilling to workforce strategy is transformative — not just for businesses, but for the 1.4 million members who were supported by Guild last year,” said Bijal Shah, Guild CEO. “By bridging the gap between education and workforce opportunity and needs, we are not just preparing workers for the future — we are driving economic outcomes for learners and business outcomes for companies to adapt, innovate, and thrive in a rapidly changing environment.”
Guild brought on new customers, including healthcare organizations such as CHRISTUS Health, OU Health, and Wellstar; retail leaders like Love’s Travel Stops and Sherwin-Williams; and innovators across manufacturing and logistics.
“At Love’s, we’ve invested in learning through Guild to empower our employees to grow their careers,” said Les Thompson, Chief Human Resources Officer at Love’s. “Supporting their skills development and breaking down barriers to advancement reflects our commitment to fostering a culture of opportunity. This investment benefits our team members today, and over time we believe it will play a role in improving retention, enhancing productivity, and creating a highly skilled workforce that strengthens our competitive edge.”
Across these new and existing partnerships, Guild maintained its focus on driving business-aligned outcomes and economic opportunity for learners. These outcomes include:
- On average, the incremental wage increases earned by Guild learners are 2x larger than the increases earned by colleagues who do not participate in the Guild benefit.
- On average, Guild learners are 3.5x more likely to experience internal career moves within their companies compared to their colleagues who do not participate.
- A 1200% increase in enrollment in AI programs among learners without a college degree over the past year.
Historic Partnership with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and LA28 Games
Guild forged a historic partnership with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, establishing itself as an Official Education, Skilling, and Career Mobility Provider for Team USA. Through Guild, eligible Team USA athletes now have access to over 250+ tuition-free education and skilling programs from trusted providers, including Purdue Global, the preferred online university and degree provider for Team USA and Guild Learning Network, and eCornell, the preferred provider of professional education. This groundbreaking collaboration offers Team USA athletes access to personalized one-on-one coaching and tailored educational opportunities through Guild, empowering them to build competitive careers alongside their athletic pursuits.
“Guild’s proven track record of driving meaningful outcomes and long-term success aligned perfectly with our mission, and we've been encouraged to see our initial hopes for this historic partnership come to life since we launched in April,” said Carrie White, USOPC Vice President of Athlete Development and Engagement. “The enthusiastic response from our athlete community reinforces the importance of this initiative, and we’re excited to see its impact continue to grow in the years ahead as our Olympic and Paralympic athletes build competitive careers alongside their athletic achievements.”
Increased Impact Slated For 2025
As Guild enters the new year, it stands ready to amplify its impact and drive innovation to create a more accessible and resilient workforce. With the nature of work rapidly transforming, Guild will help employers navigate these changes, address the dynamic needs of their businesses, and empower their workers to learn and grow.
In 2025, Guild will expand its global reach into new regions and introduce new innovative programs for high-demand fields such as healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics. It will tackle employers’ increasingly precise skilling challenges, tailoring solutions to the unique needs of specific sectors and populations. To do so, the company will expand its ability to deliver outcomes through applied learning, credit for workforce training, stackable credentialing, human-powered coaching, and peer-to-peer support. In addition, it will harness AI-driven insights to personalize learning experiences and career pathways, aligning them with the evolving goals of both employers and their employees.
Learn more about Guild’s impact and solutions here and more about additional product and expansion news already issued this year here.
About Guild
Guild is transforming how employers build talent to drive business innovation and growth. Guild Talent Advantage™ offers a range of transformative education and skilling experiences, supported by actionable talent insights for employers and personalized coaching for employees. Guild partners with employers – including Walmart, Chipotle, Discover, Hilton, Target, and healthcare systems like UCHealth – to unlock human potential and fuel organizational growth. It does this through broad access learning to attract, retain, and nurture a diverse workforce; targeted, skill-specific programs to close acute skills gaps; and cohorted, tailored learning to train employees in their company context. Guild ensures learning investments translate to sustainable talent pipelines that propel businesses forward. For more information, visit https://www.guild.com.