Purchase of Assessment College boosts City & Guilds' expansion drive

Planning ahead and creating capacity for such growth, City & Guilds acquired Assessment College to develop its assessment capacity. The purchase will also boost an international expansion drive, including new offices opened in Botswana and Barbados during 2011.

City & Guilds and Assessment College, one of the largest training and assessor training providers in South Africa, worked in association for the last two years with Assessment College acting as a quality assurance partner and approved centre for City & Guilds training of trainers. Noticing a perfect cultural and ethical mix and having established a strong relationship, this acquisition was a natural next step for the parties.

Resignation accelerated acquisition

The announcement that the executive chair, Marietta van Rooyen would be selling her shares and stepping down from her role to work on other projects in the education sector accelerated the acquisition. Gerda Magnus, the managing director of Assessment College also agreed to sell her shares, but will continue in her current role as managing director, along with all other staff.

"Quality is at the core of everything we do at City & Guilds, thus by bringing Assessment College into the City & Guilds fold, we will further enhance the quality of training and assessing in City & Guild's training providers and offer a more comprehensive service to entrepreneurs which run, or would like to run their own training facilities. Assessment College is an impressive organisation which is trusted by government agencies and employers alike," said Mike Dawe, director of international at City & Guilds.