Helping STEM's Blossom - Natalie Desty

Insight with HReSource

Bio - Our guest Natalie Desty, Founder of STEM Returners

After building a progressive career in recruitment, where she was Director of Maritime at a large recruitment company, Natalie was struck by the apparent lack of progress in diversity and inclusion within STEM, and particularly concerned by the insurmountable barriers that returners faced when looking to restart their career after a break.

Natalie created a small pilot returners programme for a group of employers and has now built this into an organisation that supports hundreds of returners in restarting their careers. Natalie has a BA Honours degree in International Relations and Politics and has been working within the engineering sector for her whole career, particularly focused on improving the sector’s diversity and inclusion. Natalie has been awarded the Royal Institution of Naval Architecture’s Eily Keily Award and an honorary Engineering Doctorate from Southampton Solent University for her role in increasing diversity and inclusion within STEM.

In this podcast we explore the STEM Returners Index, looking at the insights gained from this very recently undertaken survey.

o Concept and objective

o Respondents–sourcing the 750

o Impact of Covid

o Skills Gap

o Diversity

o CV Gap

o Applications

o Feedback from Employers

o In work – confidence and flexibility o Over- qualified conundrum

o Case studies

• Raising awareness within the industries

• Targets to measure success

• Future projects and plans

• Advice for Employers

• Advice for STEM returner candidates

• Contact information

Website: https://www.stemreturners.com/ Twitter: @ReturntoSTEM @NatalieDesty