It's not rare for college students to have a part-time job while also taking a full load of classes. What is rare, and seems nearly impossible, is for adults working full-time to simultaneously take classes and further their education.
Not anymore.
Rachel Carlson, the co-founder and CEO of Guild Education, noticed an absence in support for working adults who want to return to school. While at Stanford, she saw the innovation happening at the elite end of higher education, and the lack thereof for the working class. She said, "these are folks working jobs all across the US in food services, hospitality, healthcare--the real backbone of the middle class."
To change that, Carlson founded Guild Education to pave a new path: providing great job training and degree programs for working adults. The Denver-based startup offers classes, programs, and degrees in partnerships with top American universities. Additionally, Guild provides a supportive community for their members, encouraging their career and education progress. Guild has partnered with a range of universities and private learning providers that meet their standards for education, but also creates content they think is missing from the marketplace.
We thought there was a more creative way to support those folks in succeeding in their work while heading back to school, and not making it an either-or choice.
Denver was the obvious choice for Guild, Carlson said, because not only do we have great tech talent, but also "phenomenal folks who do social impact work, coaching, advising, social services."