Global software consultancy and product company ThoughtWorks, known as pioneers in agile and different ways of thinking and working, recently made the news with their Back to IT programme for women returners.

The successful programme was also supported by Equalitec: Advancing Women in ITEC and led to the recruitment of three new consultants to ThoughtWorks and a strong impact on the perception of women returners in IT. Equalitec is a partnership of key players: employers, professional bodies, and organisations working towards a more equal representation and involvement of women in science, engineering and technology.

Managing Maternity Director, Jennifer Liston-Smith, who provided a confidence-building session on handling difficult conversations, remarked: The Back to IT programme was very well-designed with professionalism and rigour, and at the same time really understanding the women’s doubts and concerns and enabling a great learning atmosphere with honesty and good humour.”

Speaking at a conference on women in IT held at the European Commission in March 2008, ThoughtWorks’ People Director, Jackie Kinsey, explained: “Our mission is to revolutionize the IT Industry by what we do and who we are. As a part of this, we aim to be 50% women in IT roles by 2012. Currently, in the UK generally, less than 1 in 5 five of all IT professionals are women and only 17% of all Computer Science Graduates are women. All employers seem to be chasing the same girl geeks – who don’t join IT!!! On the other hand, we know that in the UK, 52% of women with children under the age of 5 are in paid work and this increases to 70% when children reach 5-10 years of age. So why aren’t these women coming back to IT? At ThoughtWorks, we wanted to try a different approach and fortunately, our culture is set up to do things differently…”

The programme attracted 60 applicants, of whom 12 were offered places and invited to share their personal stories about getting back into IT at an all-ThoughtWorks event. They then attended the Back to IT Training Course over two 2-week modules in December 2007 and January 2008 involving training and practical exercises, ongoing 1-1 feedback, lunch events, guest speakers, mixing with ‘ThoughtWorkers’ and a detailed coding exercise. The ThoughtWorks recruitment process following the programme covered the code exercise and review, a technical interview, culture/behaviour interviews and 1-1 feedback.

This innovative programme gives fresh hope, and recognition, to women who have found it hard to get back to work after a career break. Meanwhile, Alistair Darling’s first budget speech announced that the government would be investing £12.5m in a venture-capital fund that would back women-owned businesses and provide support for women entrepreneurs who are starting up in business as well as those who are up and running. The government will also be piloting women-only business advice centres to help increase the number of female entrepreneurs in the UK. Taken together these initiatives suggest a real shift towards enabling the talents of mothers to be drawn on in the workplace, alongside their family commitments.