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At 51, Cathy wanted to put her Oxford physics degree and former experience to better use. She had worked part-time in a school for several years while her three children were young, but she wanted to get back into the corporate world.
Several applications later, she was getting nowhere. Then a friend told her about “returnships”, a form of work experience that some companies are experimenting with to help older people — mainly women — return to work, often after breaks to care for families.
Cathy eventually secured a place on an 11-week “Career Returners” programme with O2, open to men and women, which included being buddied with a 20-year-old male student. He helped to acquaint her with new technology, such as using an iPhone and accessing the company’s virtual private network from her laptop so she could work from home but still access internal files.
“On the assessment day, I thought they must have been looking at my project management skills. But they weren’t looking at us for specific roles. They were just thinking, ‘These women have a lot to offer, let’s see what they can do.’ That was refreshing.”
O2 is one of a clutch of companies, in the UK and the US, that have spotted an opportunity in hiring female returnees, who can put to use again technical skills learnt earlier in their careers.
Fans of returnships — the concept was pioneered in 2008 by the late Brenda Barnes, former chief executive at food company Sara Lee — believe middle-aged women returning after a break make particularly good employees, because they bring a fresh perspective. Women tend to combine high emotional intelligence with strong leadership and organisational skills.
There is a “massive pool of highly skilled people who want to return to work,” says head of human resources at an engineering company.
“Recruitment agencies typically view people who have had two years out as a risk, but we see them as a great opportunity.”
In fact, by hiring female returnees, companies can access hard skills these women developed in their former high-level jobs — and for a discount. In return, employers coach older females back into working life.
Through her returnship, she gained a full-time role as an operations data consultant, handling projects within service management at O2.She still is earning less than she would like to. “But it’s a foot in the door and the salary is up for review in six months,” she says.
It is still overwhelmingly women who stay home to care for young families. UK government figures show that women account for around 90 per cent of people on extended career breaks for caring reasons.
A lack of older women working, particularly in highly skilled roles, is costing the UK economy £50bn a year, according to a report last year. This was the amount that women over the age of 50 would have earned in 2015.
The report found that men over 50 took home nearly two-thirds of the total wages paid out to everyone in that age range in 2015. It blamed the pay gap on the low-skilled, part-time roles older women often accept. Some 41 per cent of women in work in the UK do so part-time, as opposed to only 11 per cent of men.
This issue is not restricted to the UK. A study last year by economists found “robust evidence of age discrimination in hiring against older women” in a range of white and blue-collar jobs. The data show that it is harder for older women to find jobs than it is for older men regardless of whether they have taken a break from working.
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