Return-to-work programmes that firms pay for, bringing women back after the children

A first step

Approach the HR managers of three firms in finance, IT or accounting, and ask whether they struggle to hire experienced staff and whether they would pay to bring back women who left work for their children. Find five such women through school parent groups and ask what would bring them back. The proof is one firm willing to pay a fee per placement for a pilot group.

Who pays first

A firm short of experienced staff that pays a fee per returner, because a trained woman back at work costs less than a graduate trained from scratch.

What leaves today

Women are 65% of the university intake and 32% of the workforce; a returnship converts that education back into wages instead of leaving it at home.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

In the book

• Ch. OneThe Letter That Says Yes and Means No
  32% of adult women in work, against 70% of men

More from cluster 23

• 436Childcare co-operatives run by mothers for mothers, licensed and inspected, in every town
• 437After-school clubs at the schools, paid by the parents, run by teachers who want the income
• 438Women-only transport services for the night shifts and the early trains
• 439Home-based work platforms that pay properly: sewing, bookkeeping, transcription, design
• 440Shared workspaces for women with childcare attached, in Colombo and the district towns
• 441Women's craft co-operatives with a single brand and a single buyer abroad

All 15 ideas in this cluster