Palatine sells Trade Skills 4U to City & Guilds

• Trade Skills 4U focuses on the adult training market and provides a range of electrical courses for individuals
• With Palatine’s backing, the company has opened two new training centres in Leeds and Coventry as well as improving its digital infrastructure
• The growth of the business has led to the number of students completing courses each year to having more than doubled since Palatine’s backing

Palatine has announced on Thursday that it has successfully exited its investment in Trade Skills 4U to City & Guilds. Trade Skills 4U was the first investment from Palatine’s Impact Fund in 2017. Trade Skills 4U was founded in 2005 and focuses on the adult training market, providing a range of electrical courses for individuals.

With the backing of Palatine the Crawley headquartered company opened two new training centres in Leeds and Coventry, improved its digital infrastructure and appointed a new chairman and financial director. The growth of the company led to the numbers of students completing courses each year to having more than doubled since 2017.

“Trade Skills 4U is joining the City & Guilds community at a critical time as the UK grapples with severe skills shortages,” said Kirstie Donnelly MBE, CEO of City & Guilds.

City & Guilds is an organisation that provides work-based qualifications. It offers more than 500 qualifications through over 8,000 colleges and training providers in over 80 countries. It is headquartered in London.

Palatine is a Manchester-headquartered private equity and venture capital firm. It has two funds, Buyout and Impact, and was founded in 2005. The firm recently exited Veincentre, the UK’s largest chain of varicose vein treatment clinics, to CPBE Capital, covered by PE Hub Europe.