The RETURN Campaign, launched by the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET (UKRC) in 2005, is organising work placements with SET employers for women returners. 

 

Purpose of Placements

 

Placements help women returners at a higher skills level to re-enter SET employment or re-establish their SET careers, develop and update their skills and build their self-confidence.   Placements should provide an opportunity for returners to establish new professional and support networks and gain experience of different organisational cultures and working methods.

 

Benefits to Employers

 

Women returners all share a major obstacle in returning to work – a CV gap - and the longer the gap, the harder it is to gain employment. Many women do not need completely up-skilling; they just need a good work induction with some extra elements such as work-shadowing and good supervision. Women returners can provide employers with the following benefits:

  • Rapid return on pre-existing skills
  • Company/ industry knowledge
  • Maturity, life experience, loyalty
  • Time and people management skills
  • Relationship to diverse customer-base
  • The opportunity to use placements as testing ground for future recruits

 

Delivery of the RETURN placement scheme

 

The Year in Industry is our main national partner in the delivery of the placement scheme covering the UK. Year in Industry are focussing on paid work placements of around 6 months duration with larger SET companies. Our regional hub in the South East and the Welsh Resource Centre, based in Cardiff also provide placement preparation, support and matching, covering Wales, Southern England and London. This may include unpaid and shorter placement opportunities. We are hoping to shortly be able to offer informal work-shadowing, trainee roles and short-term placement support in other regions.

 

Eligibility criteria for RETURN Placement Scheme with Year in Industry

 

Ø      Meet the general eligibility critieria for the RETURN programmei.e. women who are trained to degree level or higher in science, engineering or technology, (or who have been working in a job where a degree would usually be required), who are no longer working in SET and are interested in returning

Ø      Be legally entitled to work in UK

Ø      Able to produce a well-written CV

Ø      Have relevant previous SET work experience which can be built on

Ø      Fluency in written and spoken English

Ø      IT literate and confident user skills

Ø      Motivated and able to return to work in short term

Ø      Prepared to engage in proactive job search

Ø      Prepared to think laterally about use of skills and different work contexts

 

For some women, unpaid work placements or work-shadowing opportunities may be more suitable than the paid six month placement. For example, if you have SET qualifications but no previous work experience, or have had a very long career gap, or if you need a longer time to prepare to return to work, then you may benefit from preparatory support and action planning with our local hubs in the first instance. We will seek to meet these different needs as far as possible.

 

We recognise that each individual returner’s position and profile is unique, and therefore the above criteria are intended as a guide and we will seek to assess each applicant fairly and realistically.

 

As our employer contacts develop, we will be advertising specific placement opportunities both to our pool of registered candidates and on our website. www.setwomenresource.org.uk.

We are also actively seeking employers willing to offer a variety of opportunities at different levels.

 

 For further information see - www.setwomenresource.org.uk.