On 16 October 2025, City and Guilds of London Institute (CGLI) announced the sale of its commercial awarding organisation and skills training activities to PeopleCert

I really couldn’t give a rats **** who owns City and Guilds. My interest lies in what is best for the electrical installation industry. ‘The Guilds’ was held in the highest esteem. Their name on electrical qualifications really mattered. I sincerely hope that continues. It is crucial that their electrical installation qualification portfolio remains strong and develops to embrace new technologies without ignoring the old. However, as someone who has tutored on most of the courses on their suite of electrical installation qualifications for the best part of 35 years, there is always much improvement to be made.

I really couldn’t give a rats **** who owns City and Guilds. My interest lies in what is best for the electrical installation industry. ‘The Guilds’ was held in the highest esteem. Their name on electrical qualifications really mattered. I sincerely hope that continues. It is crucial that their electrical installation qualification portfolio remains strong and develops to embrace new technologies without ignoring the old. However, as someone who has tutored on most of the courses on their suite of electrical installation qualifications for the best part of 35 years, there is always much improvement to be made.

C&G were the long standing awards qualification body.  Any trades person would always be asked for their C&G certification to prove their trade for many years.  These days an electrician could be C&G or EAL.  However some people will argue that C&G being primarily a certification/awards examination body should NOT be allowed to enter the training space but this is what they done when they purchased Trades Skill 4 U.  People may say this is a conflict of interest even more so now as they become a commercial entity looking for financial gain.   

When the operating part of the organization was sold off by the charity was the Royal Warrant also sold off?

No, and I do not think that it could have been.

Being pedantic, it is a Royal Charter rather than a Royal Warrant. AFAIK, CGLI continues in existence and presumably, continues to hold its Royal Charter.

We may not be a representative sample, but those of us who have C&G qualifications seem to be uneasy about the new arrangements.

From my experience of doing training with private companies, if you are paying for the training and then paying for the exam, then so long as you were awake, you expect to get the certificate at the end of it.

The idea of people doing the training and then failing the exam will have to stop pretty quickly.

Or you could go and spend 3 years* on the edge of the Fens and take an exam with the same institution, which is independent of government, etc. Most folk pass. Is that fair?

*More like 18 months 'cos the terms are only about 8½ weeks.