Mom gets back into the race
August 21, 2008
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Terrence Belford
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Laurie Lockington, 38, is facing a challenge shared by tens of thousands of women across Canada.
A graduate chemical engineer, she left her job as a project manager at Smart Technologies in Calgary six years ago when she found raising a family and managing a high-pressure career too taxing.
Now, the mother of three wants to re-enter the workforce – part-time at first. But the family has since moved to London, Ont. and she lacks the contacts and business support network she enjoyed in Calgary. She also knows many of her skills are distinctly dated. Resuming a career is certain to pose major challenges.
Jacqueline Wilson, 49, knows exactly how Lockington feels. Eight years ago, she left a lucrative consultant job in Calgary to have her third child. She's also ready to re-enter the workforce, but is now in Vancouver, where her husband's own fast-rising career has taken them.
The network of friends and business acquaintances she spent years creating in Calgary has been left far behind. She has a resumé sparkling with past successes, but its best-before date has long since expired.
There is hope on the horizon for women like Wilson and Lockington. Increasingly, academic institutions and community organizations are launching programs designed to help smooth the way back into the workforce for qualified women who have opted to take time off.
Wilson just completed a two-month course staged by the Minerva Foundation at the University of British Columbia to help women polish their skills, resumés and networks of contacts.
Lockington is among the first to sign up for ReConnect, an intensive seven-day program starting this fall at the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey Business School.
"Helping academically qualified women with managerial experience resume their careers is essential for the future of this country," says Mary Heisz, ReConnect's faculty director. "Fast-changing demographics mean we face a dramatic shortage of trained professionals in the years ahead. Women who left the workforce can help fill that need."
A study by the U.S. Center for Work-Life Policy and the Harvard Business Review backs those views. It points out that 37 per cent of highly qualified women voluntarily leave the workforce for a period of time. For women with children, that number rises to 43 per cent.
Although 93 per cent want to return to work, only 74 per cent manage to do so, and only 40 per cent find full-time jobs. The chief impediments are outdated skills, a lack of confidence and an outdated network of business contacts to call on when it comes to finding suitable employment, Heisz says.
Jacqueline Moss, senior vice-president of human resources for CIBC, says the bank sees opportunities for its own workforce – and has committed $1 million over five years to support ReConnect.
With CIBC subsidizing a third of the program costs and Ivey picking up the tab for another third, ReConnect participants pay $3,500 for room, board and tuition. There is also financial assistance for those who cannot afford the fee.
Applicants must have a business-oriented degree, such as a Bachelor of Commerce or Law or a Masters of Business Administration, and must have been out of the workforce for between two and six years.
"They need the academic qualifications because there isn't time in the course to teach them things like accounting," Heisz explains. "And more than six years away suggests their skills and familiarity with today's business practices are too outdated for us to be able to help in such a limited time frame."
The course starts with four days of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. courses, including a wake-up fitness program, reviewing and updating "hard skills" such as the latest in corporate governance practices and changes in technology and marketing. Evenings are devoted to "soft skills" such as dressing for success, life/work balance and team building.
"It's like an MBA boot camp," says Heisz.
During a hiatus between the last days of classes at Ivey's London, Ont., campus on Oct. 31 and the final two days at the Toronto campus starting Nov. 25, course members will go home, rewrite their resumés and be required to add at least two new contacts to their network of business contacts.
Also during that period, a team from CIBC will stage mock job interviews for all course members. The final two days will provide a critique of those new resumés and performance at the mock interview, and then focus on two key elements of management: negotiation and communications.
By the end of the course, Heisz says, the participants should be polished and poised for re-entry.
"Our goal is to have helped them re-establish confidence in their abilities to make a smooth transition back to the workforce," she says.
Toronto Star