How will the sale of City and Guilds impact the education sector?

The biggest UK assessment sector news story in 20 years. City & Guilds, synonymous with ‘the trades’ and vocational education, has been sold. Just like Xerox, Hoover, and Sellotape – Guilds is a rare genericised brand that the general public instantly recognise. 

Its acquirer is PeopleCert. A privately owned company led by its founder and owner Byron Nicolaides. The sale proceeds will go to founding a separate charitable wing. The exact playbook used by Pearson on acquiring Edexcel over 20 years ago, and also UfI when Learndirect was sold to LDC in 2011.

The press release reads as though doing nothing wasn't an option. The sale was apparently 2½ years in the making, but a management change wasn't seen as an answer. The release appears to blame Brexit, Covid, and Government policy for the situation. However, assessment sector analysts know that many of Guilds’ competitors grew faster both through and after the pandemic. There’s also sparse evidence of Guilds losing European income as a result of Britain leaving the European Union. And surely Guilds are capable of shaping vocational education policy? 

Why would a sector-defining, growing, iconic, robust British education brand, with undoubted lobbying capability, blame government policy, Brexit, and Covid for selling up? 

But why would a leading education brand, with growing income and reasonable cost controls, need to sell-up to the commercial world? It’s fair to ask if management and trustees explored effective ownership models. Perhaps an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), similar to John Lewis? A social enterprise provident association with no shareholders, just like Bupa?  Or a co-operative society, operating for member benefit, as the Co-Op does? Perhaps the Edexcel and UfI stories were completely compelling to trustees. Or maybe the advice of Guilds’ investment bankers was to not expend resources on thinking innovatively? 

In re-using the Edexcel and UfI playbook, did Guilds’ trustees and management have no capacity for an innovative ownership model? 

Few education companies are currently of a size, scope, or structure to afford this type of transaction. PeopleCert’s successful acquisition of the Axelos joint venture from the Cabinet Office and Capita in 2021 must have given comfort to Guilds’ trustees and management. But this is not the first rodeo for PeopleCert and Guilds. In 2014 PeopleCert acquired their English language IP – a sector that has seen an unparalleled boom since then. The sale of Kineo to Mindtools in May 2025 also gave an indication that change was coming. 

PeopleCert's acquisition of City & Guilds is the biggest UK assessment story in 20 years

What should we expect? Those immersed in the business of assessment know that the culture of both companies are poles apart. One owns all its IP and systems. The other has sporadically made ventures into digital for over 20 years, but has not truly digitally transformed its business. That cultural chasm may prove problematic.

We should expect mainstream news and policy butterflies to momentarily pause their AI agonising and finger-jabbing on learner malpractice, to briefly reflect. But their in-curiosity is probably due to retrenched views on vocational education, just as it is on vocational digital assessment. 

Why are the mainstream press and policy butterflies incurious about the deal? Is this ‘other people’s children’ writ large? Or are they just holding their noses again, as they do when vocational digital assessment is mentioned? 

They forget that the British education sector is now nakedly competitive and commercial. There are clear battle-lines being drawn. Government for England creating franchises for T Levels and V Levels to lease government IP. Private money picking up strategic assessment assets. Many forget that part of PeopleCert is already Ofqual-regulated. We should expect the new company to have a much larger seat at the regulatory table. 

We should also expect clarity on the City and Guilds sale price in the near future. But should we believe that Guilds, and all the other businesses wrapped up in this acquisition (including AOs ILM and ABE Group) have been sold for a relatively small multiple of income? PeopleCert’s next financial quarter report may provide clues on the sale price. The mix of bank funding and use of cash reserves should be the big tell. I suspect it was an absolute bargain. 

Should we expect to learn that Guilds was sold for a surprisingly small multiple of its income or earnings? 

Kudos to PeopleCert for having the skill, tenacity, and guts to pull off the deal. I’ve no doubt they’ll drive growth, internationalise, displace legacy costs, and execute a progressive strategy. I’m certain colleagues in the awarding sector will believe Guilds trustees and management appear to have raised a white flag. But make no mistake. City and Guilds is now owned by a Greek commercial entrepreneur and deal-maker. 

In a rapidly evolving vocational sector, it takes skill to (digitally) transform a business with baked-in legacy costs and be competitive. Ironically, Guilds’ management and trustees appear not have to have the motivation or skill for doing that.