How Returnships Help Women in Tech Return to the Workforce

Mashable
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How Returnships Help Women in Tech Return to the Workforce-giving compass

Giving Compass’ Take:

• Asha Vade reports that returnships are helping parents enter back into the workforce by offering training programs and skill-building to reacquaint them with what they’ve missed. 

• How can philanthropists partner with businesses to make workforce re-entry programs more prolific? Can businesses start to provide training directly?

• This video series follows top women in technology jobs and highlights their growing presence in tech. 

I had made the decision to leave my technical project manager position in order to better support my family.  I knew I didn’t want to lose the best years with my child, who now needed me to be present in the moment, to be engaged, to have energy. But when I made the difficult decision to take a break, I never imagined that my career wouldn’t be waiting for me when I was ready to return.

As I hit the pause button on my professional life, I planned to return to work when the time was right. But once I started my job hunt, I realized I had a harder road ahead of me.

Many working parents face re-entry issues, but the challenge can be more pronounced in the tech industry. According to research by AnitaB.org and the Michelle R. Clayman Institute, “the mid-level is perhaps the most critical juncture for women on the technical career ladder because it is here that a complex set of gender barriers converge.”

The pipeline for women in technology to senior-level roles has a leak. Many companies are taking an innovative approach to supporting women in the workplace, especially women in the technology industry, through a new kind of initiative: “returnships.”

Returnships are a type of internship program that provides a way for organizations to recruit and on-board mid-career men and women who have taken a break in their careers and want to re-enter the workforce.  The nice part of returnships? You’re not starting at the bottom of your career all over again; instead, your skills and past experience are recognized as a part of the program for you to build from.

Read the full article about returnships by Asha Vade at Mashable. 

Since you are interested in Women and Girls, have you read these selections from Giving Compass related to impact giving and Women and Girls?

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    Gabriela Citrone: How this Next-Gen Donor is Defining Her Path

    Gabriela Citrone may be a recent college graduate, but her philanthropic vision is already firmly established. Citrone was first introduced to the world of philanthropy at six years old when she modeled in a CancerCare American Girls Doll fashion show, an event her mother Cindy helped put together. “With my parents being long-time givers, I’ve been surrounded by philanthropy my entire life,” said Citrone, 23. Later, Citrone jumped head first into nonprofit work, spending summers with Make-A-Wish and interning with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Pink Agenda, an organization that raises money for breast cancer research and creates awareness of the disease among young professionals. She also rounded out her experience with a fellowship at the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation. In 2017, the Citrone 33 Foundation launched Play it Forward Pittsburgh to bring awareness to organ donation after Citrone’s grandfather was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease and needed a kidney transplant. In four months, the campaign registered 1,200 potential donors which has the potential to save 9,600 people. The Citrone’s attribute the campaign's success to its partnerships with Pittsburgh’s professional sports teams, universities and local organizations. Two months after graduating from Elon University in North Carolina, Citrone and her college roommate demonstrated their next-gen approach to philanthropy and headed to Pittsburgh. “For six months, we were the boots on the ground, directing this campaign with guidance from the team in Connecticut, but it was really just the two of us on the ground attending all these activations and promoting organ donor registration and doing all the marketing,” said Citrone, whose parents are Pittsburgh natives but are based in Connecticut.

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