Recruitment
Natalie Desty, founder and director of STEM Returners.
Published: November 26, 2024 | Updated: 26th November 2024
STEM Returners in Fareham has published results from its annual national survey, showing the challenges professionals face when trying to return to work after a career break.
It found that bias in the recruitment system against age, gender, ethnicity and whether participants had a disability is still preventing career returners from gaining employment.
However, the main barrier to entry was bias against lack of recent experience.
The survey was published in the same week as Natalie Desty, director of STEM Returners, won the Equity of Opportunity category at the Women in Defence Awards for her work improving returners’ career prospects.
The annual STEM Returners Index asks more than 1,000 STEM professionals on a career break a range of questions to understand their experiences of trying to rejoin the STEM sector.
This year, four in 10 people felt they’d experienced personal bias in the recruitment system – up seven per cent on 2023 – while 65 per cent said they found returning to work difficult or very difficult – up 14 per cent.
Half of respondents said a perceived lack of recent experience was a barrier to entry, up from 38 per cent in last year’s survey.
More than a quarter of women felt they’d experienced bias based on their gender, often due to childcare responsibilities.
Around a third of both men and women cited bias relating to their age, while returners from minority ethnic backgrounds were twice as likely to feel they’d experienced bias based on their race or ethnicity.
A lot more respondents this year also claimed bias due to a limiting health condition or disability.
Natalie Desty, director of STEM Returners, said: “It’s disappointing to see that returners are still being penalised because of a gap on their CV.
“We know that most people do not take a career break out of choice – only 15 per cent of our survey’s respondents said it was their choice to take a career break.
“So why are more people being penalised for a lack of recent experience when, for many, it’s something that cannot be helped?
“It’s particularly concerning to see more people saying they’ve experienced bias against their health and disability status.
“There are growing skills gaps across the engineering, tech and green jobs sectors that returners are ready and waiting to fill.
“More people saying they’re experiencing bias suggests that discrimination in the recruitment process is systemic and industry leaders must do more to update recruitment practices and challenge unconscious bias to give returners a fair chance to rejoin the industry they are passionate about.”
STEM Returners works with the likes of BAE Systems, E.ON, Leonardo UK and Boeing to support people back to work.
Through paid, 12-week placements, candidates are able to rejoin the workforce and receive mentoring and career coaching along the way.
At the end of the placement, they have the opportunity to become a permanent member of staff at the host organisation.
