Guild Education Partners with Leading HBCU Spelman College to Expand Educational Opportunity for America's Workforce

DENVER, Aug. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Guild Education, the nation's leading education and upskilling platform, today announced a new partnership with Spelman College, a historically Black college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. This partnership adds Spelman to Guild's Learning Marketplace, making the new eSpelman online certificates available to employees of all genders at Guild's employer partners.

Taught from the unique perspective of Spelman's HBCU pedagogy, eSpelman certificate programs are designed to benefit career-driven frontline workers seeking education for career programs and career flexibility. Certificates in leadership, business essentials and project management will create paths for working adult learners to advance into leadership positions and provide foundational skills that directly map to essential skills for frontline manager roles.

"We are honored to have Spelman College as a part of the Guild Learning Marketplace," said Rachel Carlson, Co-Founder and CEO of Guild Education. "Their new eSpelman certificate programs were created specifically to address the needs of America's diverse workforce and will allow working adult learners to embark on their own education and upskilling journeys through the lens of this renowned HBCU."

The new online enterprise will offer students a dynamic and nurturing learning environment with the support of members of the Spelman faculty.

"As we look to the future, it is important for Spelman to build on our legacy and create new ways to reach working adult learners through courses that acknowledge conversations around race, class, gender, and social justice, regardless of the subject matter," said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., President of Spelman. "Our partnership with Guild will connect the newly launched eSpelman with some of the nation's largest, forward-thinking employers, including Walmart. We look forward to being a part of their associate's educational journeys."

Guild partners with Fortune 500 companies including Walmart, Chipotle, Waste Management, Lowe's, The Walt Disney Company, and Discover Financial Services to provide education and training programs to their workforce. Current employees at U.S.-based companies whose employer offers education programs are encouraged to contact their HR coordinators to see if Guild and Spelman College are options for them. eSpelman certificates will be available as early as Fall 2021.

About Guild Education
Guild Education is on a mission to unlock opportunity for America's workforce through education and upskilling. A certified B-Corp, founded to bridge the gap between education and employment for the 88 million working adults in the U.S. in need of upskilling for the future of work, Guild is an education platform that upskills workers and prepares companies for the future. Guild's industry-leading technology platform allows the nation's largest employers ? including Walmart, The Walt Disney Company and Chipotle ? to offer strategic education and upskilling to their employees. Guild connects them to a learning marketplace of the nation's best universities and learning providers, from institutions like Oregon State University, Historically Black Colleges and Universities like Paul Quinn College, community colleges like Rio Salado College, Southern New Hampshire University and eCornell, as well as certificates in technical skills like Salesforce Administration and GoogleIT ? with tuition paid by the company. Guild serves working learners from all 50 states, including 54% who are students of color and 56% who are female. Guild's payments and technology platform, curated learning marketplace, and advanced education and career coaching come together to help working adult learners advance in their education and career, debt-free. For more information, visit https://www.guildeducation.com/.

About Spelman College
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College's picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The College's status is confirmed by U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 54 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for undergraduate teaching, No. 4 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 14th year among historically Black colleges and universities. The Wall Street Journal ranked the College No. 3, nationally, in terms of student satisfaction. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU, and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, and partnerships have been established with MIT's Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning. Outstanding alumnae include Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman's first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones. For more information, visit Spelman College.

SOURCE Guild Education