Guild Education and OneTen Partner to Expand Access to Education and Upskilling for Black Talent Across the Country

Guild Education, the leading education and upskilling platform for America’s workforce, announced a talent development partnership with OneTen, a coalition of leading chief executives and their companies committed to upskilling, hiring and advancing one million Black Americans over the next ten years. Guild and OneTen will work together to increase access to online education and upskilling opportunities for Black talent across the United States.

Education and upskilling can be a critical tool in moving the lever on creating more equitable opportunities for workers of all backgrounds. A recent study found that at one Guild employer partner, Black participants in the employer’s education and upskilling program were 88 percent more likely to receive promotions than non-participants, and Hispanic or Latino associates were 71 percent more likely.

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Guild will provide OneTen companies access to its dynamic learning marketplace, which includes top ranked and innovative Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) like Spelman College, Morehouse College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Paul Quinn College, to create new ways to reach working Black adults in the U.S.

“At Guild we believe that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. For too long, Black talent has lacked the bridges to close education to employment gaps,” said Rachel Carlson, Guild Education CEO & Co-Founder. “We’ve seen firsthand how reskilling and upskilling can support a more diverse and equitable workforce, and create opportunities for career advancement for workers of all backgrounds. Our partnership with OneTen builds on the work we have been doing with HBCUs to expand access to education and upskilling to more Black talent across the country.”

“I’m thrilled to see Guild and OneTen come together to fuel a mission to advance one million Black Americans into quality jobs over the next ten years,” said Ken Chenault, General Catalyst Chairman and Managing Director, Guild Board Member, and OneTen Co-Founder. “Providing talent with access to leading academic institutions, including HBCUs, will propel this important effort forward. The best way to ensure we reach our goals is by building high-quality partnerships that are aligned to our mission, and we’re grateful to have these organizations fuel this important work.”

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“Expanding access to education and job readiness preparation to Black talent who have traditionally been excluded from attaining family-sustaining jobs due to degree requirements is central to OneTen’s mission,” said Maurice Jones, OneTen’s CEO. “Guild Education shares this same goal, and we are pleased to have it as part of our robust and growing coalition of talent developers and employers.”

OneTen was founded by Ken Chenault, General Catalyst Chairman and Managing Director and Guild board member, Ken Frazier, Chairman and CEO of Merck, Charles Phillips, Managing Partner of Recognize, Chairman of the Black Economic Alliance and former CEO of Infor, Ginni Rometty, Executive Chairman and former CEO of IBM and Kevin Sharer, former Chairman and CEO of Amgen and former faculty member at Harvard Business School. OneTen’s mission is to hire, promote and advance one million Black individuals who do not have four-year degrees into family-sustaining careers over the next ten years. The organization takes a skills-first approach, focusing on competencies not credentials, with the aim to close the opportunity gap in the U.S. and ignite potential for generations to come.

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