Returnships aren't just for mothers

Do you think that returnships are just for mothers who've taken a break to look after their young children? Think again! Women and men take long career breaks for many other reasons, such as caring for elderly relatives, personal illness, and relocation.

Andrew Bomford from the Radio 4 PM programme came along to the first Balfour Beatty Career Returner workshop and spoke to the returner group, as well as to Anna from Women Returners. He also interviewed Clare who's now back in full-time work as a Senior Manager at O2. Listen to the clip below for a snapshot of the wonderful diversity of the returner community, as well as an illustration of how returner programmes can work for the individual as well as the organisation (click on the image below). 

Posted by Julianne

Women Returners on Woman's Hour

We were delighted to have the opportunity to feature on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour for the second time on Monday this week. With all the post-Budget headlines on the self-employed and national insurance contributions a lot of people would have missed the positive announcement of a £5m fund to support return-to-work programmes. We’re really passionate at Women Returners about raising awareness for women about the options when they’re thinking about returning to work and providing support, advice and resources. We’re also extremely keen to be extolling the benefits and the business case to organisations for recruiting from this highly talented pool of women on career break. 

The returnships feature with Jane Garvey on Woman’s Hour allowed us to raise awareness and promote the benefits, which was fantastic. On a personal level, being on national radio was a bit nerve-wracking - I re-read a couple of the Women Returners blogs on confidence over the weekend for courage! Having to get two young children ready for school in the morning before the interview though kept me grounded. My two boys were disappointed I wasn’t on a ‘cooler’ station like Radio 1. We were really pleased with the balance of the feature; a personal and inspiring case study from a returner at KPMG as well as having Israil from Skanska to give an employer’s point of view and Women Returners to chip in on the trickier points! If you have 10 minutes to spare do take the time to listen and feel free to share with friends and family who might be interested:

Getting back to work. BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, 13 March 2017

We also had a short slot on the Money Box Budget Special on Saturday, featuring Julianne and Samina, one of our inspiring Conference panelists:

Returnships in the Budget – Feature.  BBC Radio 4 Money Box, 11 March 2017

Posted by Anna, Lead Coach - Women Returners

Returnships on the Radio

It was fantastic to have the opportunity, this week, to spread the word about the benefits and growth of returnships on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme. Rachel Tomkins, a project manager at Tideway, also discussed her experiences on the 2014 Tideway Returner Programme.

If you missed it, you can listen on iPlayer until Tuesday using this link: ‪bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07syyrf … … (it's a 5 minute clip, 2:49 into the programme).

Posted by Julianne