Boeing, Boston Fed, Intel, and Lucid join the 2022 STEM Reentry Task Force
Chicago—April 13, 2022 -The Society of Women Engineers and iRelaunch today announced four new participating partners for the SWE/iRelaunch STEM Reentry Task Force: The Boeing Company, The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Intel Corporation, and Lucid Motors.
The STEM Reentry Task Force started in 2015 through a partnership between the Society of Women Engineers and iRelaunch, the pioneering career reentry consulting, training and events company focused on bringing professionals back to work after an extended leave.
The goal of the Task Force is to enable employers to diversify the mid- to senior levels of their workforce by hiring from the predominantly female pool of professionals who have taken a career break. This goal is accomplished by increasing the number and scope of employer career reentry programs specifically targeting these returning professionals.
“Over 850 returning professionals have participated in career reentry programs launched by STEM Reentry Task Force employer partners, and 85 percent have been hired. We are excited to see the accelerated growth as more employer partners join our mission,” said Karen Horting, executive director and CEO of SWE.
Each Task Force partner organization launches its own career reentry program with structured guidance and subject matter expertise from SWE and iRelaunch, and participates in a cohort of employers launching their programs in the same time frame. Monthly meetings enable collaboration among the cohort members around a shared, proprietary knowledge platform. Task Force programs focus on relaunching engineers and technologists, and often a range of other professional areas, and usually involve a mid-career internship or “returnship.”
Programs can run for eight weeks to one year and are similar to entry-level university internships, except with roles and programming appropriate for mid- to senior-level professionals. Participants are returning to work after career breaks from one to over 20 years for reasons including childcare, eldercare, pursuing a personal interest, a personal health issue, or after experiences such as running for political office, entrepreneurial ventures or military service.
“Career breaks are rapidly becoming normalized with the proliferation of employer career reentry programs, and after career breaks became much more prevalent during the Pandemic.” said Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO and Co-founder of iRelaunch. “In fact, at iRelaunch, we just released our #calloutyourbreak campaign which encourages relaunchers to use a new “Career Break” feature introduced by LinkedIn to call out their breaks showing they are clearly eligible for the growing number of employer career reentry programs, and encourages the employers running these programs to announce publicly that they want to see the career breaks called out.
Returners can check the Task Force website link “Return to Work” to access new Task Force partner programs when they launch, and “alumni” Task Force programs that are already launched.
In the meantime, engineers and technologists seeking employment opportunities can also upload their resume to the SWE Career Center and also sign up for the STEM Reentry Task Force listserv.
More information about the STEM Reentry Task Force program can be found on the Task Force website.
About SWE
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is the world’s largest advocate and catalyst for change for women in engineering and technology. The not-for-profit educational and service organization is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. To ensure SWE members reach their full potential as engineers and leaders, the Society offers unique opportunities to network, provides professional development, shapes public policy and provides recognition for the life-changing contributions and achievements of women engineers. As a champion of diversity, SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in their personal and professional lives. For more information about the Society, please visit www.swe.org or call 312.596.5223.
About iRelaunch
iRelaunch is the pioneering career reentry consulting, training and events company focused on bringing professionals back to work after extended leave. iRelaunch works with employers to build and expand their career reentry programs to hire relaunchers, and trains managers, recruiters and others involved in supporting the relauncher participants, plus the relaunchers themselves. At the same time, iRelaunch provides tools, resources, events, outreach about career reentry programs and relauncher job opportunities and more to the iRelaunch community of 100,000 relaunchers.
