| Formerly | Guild Education |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Founders | Rachel Romer and Brittany Stich |
| Headquarters | Denver, Colorado |
| Website | www |
Guild, formerly known as Guild Education, is a private company headquartered in Denver, Colorado that is employed by Fortune 1000 companies to manage their education assistance benefits. [1] Guild facilitates direct payment for courses to education provider clients and offers marketing services. [1] [2]
Guild Education was founded in June 2015 by Rachel Romer and Brittany Stich. [3] [4] The company advises large corporations and contracts with adult education providers. It offers marketing services and receives payment from schools only when students enroll. [5] The employers also receive a tax break. [6]
In June 2021, Guild Education announced a strategic partnership with 2U, [7] where the latter company made its degree programs, courses, and bootcamp programs available to the corporations that employ Guild. [8] Google also made Google Career Certificates available to corporations that employ Guild. [9] In the same month, CNBC reported that Guild Education sought to profit from its expectation of automation increasing displacement of workers. [10]
In June 2022, Forbes and Bloomberg reported Guild's valuation at $4.4 billion. [11] [12] That same year, Guild Education reduced its office space in Denver by 50 percent. [13]
In April 2023, Guild Education rebranded as Guild, and according to Fortune , added "a new career coaching product." [14] In May 2023, Guild reduced its staff by 12%, resulting in over 150 individuals being laid off after several rounds of restructuring. [15] In October 2023, Guild announced that it was offering training in artificial intelligence for front line workers through its education provider clients. [16]
In April 2024, Bijal Shah was named CEO. [17] In May 2024, Guild laid off an additional quarter of its workforce, an estimated 300 workers. [18] In October 2024, Guild announced its acquisition of Nomadic Learning. [19]
In January 2025, Macy's ended its partnership with Guild Education, after working with the company to provide college degree programs and other educational courses to its employees at no cost. [20]
In April 2025, Spectrum partnered with Guild to offer online courses. [21]
In 2018, The Century Foundation contributor Kelia Washington wrote "at best, [Guild] 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." [22]