Women engineers and scientists who left the sector because of family commitments are making a comeback thanks to a new campaign, as its manager, Jane Butcher, explains

With a predominantly male and ageing workforce, Britain’s science, engineering and technology sector (SET) needs to find new ways of meeting not only current but future skills requirements if it is to have a future.

Yet there are more than 50,000 women who already have SET qualifications or work experience, but are not, currently, working in the sector. This is regrettable because most will have experience in roles such as scientific research, IT, project management and engineering. In addition, many will have gained a wealth of life experience and people skills along with management expertise gained from juggling caring and family responsibilities with work.

To help tackle this disparity, the UK Resource Centre (UKRC) has launched the Return campaign to encourage more women to take up positions in the sector. This campaign is aimed primarily at qualified women who are trained to degree level or higher in a relevant discipline, or those who have been working in a job where a degree would usually be required.

The UKRC was established in 2004 to help deliver the government’s Strategy for Women in SET and is funded from the science budget of the Department of Trade and Industry. Now in its second year, the Return campaign is aiming over the coming year to meet a target of providing 1,000 women with information, access to refresher training, mentoring and networking, as well as help in negotiating flexible working.

Regional UKRC staff work with employers to encourage them to offer short-term project work to returners as a way of helping them resume their careers.

More than 600 women with previous experience and qualifications in SET have so far been encouraged to consider returning to careers in the sector. Early evaluation of a sample of participants shows 32% have been unemployed for more than three years.

The first port of call for potential “returners” is the UKRC national helpline, 01274 436485, or the website, www.setwomenresource.org.uk

Companies that want to increase the diversity of their workforce and benefit from the talent we are uncovering can contact us by the same means.

Case study

Catherine Hunt, an electrical engineer, was one of the first SET returners to find work through the Return campaign. After registering on the Return placement scheme, she attended a meeting with Thames Water. This resulted in two returners being taken on. One, a mechanical engineer, was offered part-time work while Catherine was offered a specially created liaison role between engineering and operations.

She explains that she had not worked in engineering since 2000, when she took voluntary redundancy from her then employer Pirelli and moved to Miami, Florida, with her husband's job. “I couldn’t work in Miami because of visa problems and decided to go back to university, completing a full-time MBA in international business in December 2001.

“When we came back to the UK in 2002, I found it very difficult to return to engineering because most companies at that time were looking for ‘relevant experience’. Instead I project-managed some building work to our house and worked part-time as a sales assistant for a soft furnishing company.

“But I decided I wanted to return to engineering so a couple of years ago, so I registered on the Return placement scheme. They arranged a meeting with a project manager at Thames Water, which went really well and I was offered an 18-month contract in a new liaison role between engineering and operations. I joined Thames Water in July 2006. Not having a water background, I found it hard to adjust, but that said, I am enjoying working full-time again and being part of a team.”

After graduating from the University of Southampton in 1989 with a BEng (Hons), Catherine began her professional careeer working for GPT as a manufacturing engineer and obtained membership of the IEE [the first step to chartered status]. In 1991, she joined electrical distribution company Manweb as a development engineer. In 1995, she was approached by Pirelli Cables (now Prysmian Cables) to become its senior development engineer for medium voltage cable-jointing systems.

Source

Building Sustainable Design