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Customer Story: PfP Thrive – A skills centre for the housing sector

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City & Guilds helped PfP Thrive, part of Places for People (PfP), achieve its ambition to become a training provider, tackling the skills shortage in housing and construction one learner at a time.


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PfP is the UK’s leading social enterprise and manages over 260,000 homes across England and Scotland.

Faced with skills gaps in green technologies, recruitment shortages and a lack of tailored training provision for the housing sector, PfP saw an opportunity to deliver on its mission to be a force for good. This led to the creation of its own training solution for the housing sector – PfP Thrive – offering apprenticeships, short courses and organisational development.

While the vision and goals for PfP Thrive were clear from the outset, they were looking for an experienced partner who could guide and advise them. As their partner of choice, we worked closely with PfP Thrive to create a customised support package. Our expertise in Construction and Building Services standards, curricula, assessment and provider readiness gave PfP Thrive a single, end‑to‑end partner.

Through our Skills Consultancy services, we helped PfP Thrive get set up as a provider of apprenticeships. This included guidance on their training facilities, equipment and their application to the Apprenticeship Provider and Assessment Register (the APAR). Our Technical Advisors helped PfP Thrive to develop their new Construction and Building Services Engineering curriculum and prepare their tutors for on-programme delivery.

 

“City & Guilds delivered targeted training to give our tutors the high-quality resources and coaching they needed to provide high-quality learning experiences.”

Lyana Godsell, Head of Apprenticeship Development, PfP Thrive

We’re also providing ongoing end-point assessment services for PfP Thrive’s apprentices and validating and quality assuring their internally developed training courses through our Assured service. The final element of our partnership was helping PfP Thrive become a Skills Bootcamp delivery partner for Air Source Heat Pump Installation.

 


“‘City & Guilds bring a vast amount of knowledge and experience within the further education and qualification sector. They’ve been fundamental in achieving what we’ve achieved so far, and what we will achieve in the future at PfP Thrive.”

Tom Arey, Director, PfP Thrive

Since opening their doors in August 2025, PfP Thrive have continued to build on the strong foundations we established together. They’ve engaged with 60 different partners across the housing and construction sectors and recruited over 100 apprentices in less than a year. Looking ahead, they remain committed to strengthening capability, confidence and long‑term sustainability in the housing sector, advancing their mission to be a force for good.