In 2008, a talent recruiter at Goldman Sachs noticed that the finance industry was ignoring a pool of highly-educated job applicants with years of experience: women who wanted to return to work after rearing children.
To make it easier for these women to return to the workforce, Goldman Sachs created the returnship program (a name that they have now trademarked).
The idea behind the returnship program is simple: The company offers qualified candidates, who have been out of the workforce for at least two years, eight weeks of work at competitive salaries.
The returning workers get paid to refresh their skill sets and rebuild their professional networks. At the end of eight weeks, Goldman Sachs gets first choice to hire the top candidates, who have been trained to be optimal Goldman Sachs employees.Based on the success of Goldman Sachs’ program, companies in various business sectors have created their own versions. Also, a number of headhunting and career development companies have sprung up, like iRelaunch and Corps Team, that specialize in staffing returning workers. Returnships are a new avenue for older workers to either rejoin the workforce or jump to another career, and there are some excellent perks to these programs. There are also a few downsides.
Returnship programs look for experienced workers
Unlike standard internships that are optimized for recent college graduates, returnship programs are geared toward retraining workers with established skill sets. They are looking for people who fit a specific niche within an industry. While returnships are as wildly competitive as internships, the competition for jobs is confined to one age cohort. Because returnship recruiters are actively searching for workers with experience-based knowledge, you will not have to compete with the kids these days in these programs. (See also: 6 Things Moms Should Do Before Returning to Work)
You get paid to learn
All industries are constantly evolving. Technology, and even jobs, can become obsolete in a matter of months. Figuring out which skills are important for job re-entry can be daunting. Returnships offer the opportunity to learn the required computer programs, workflow, and culture of a company in an efficient, immersive manner.
Although returnship compensation varies wildly, companies like Goldman Sachs pay a competitive wage, even during training, in order to recruit top talent. By the way, returnship compensation is a good method of separating the companies that are just exploiting workers for cheap labor from companies that are seriously recruiting older workers. Companies don’t pay top dollar for people to do busywork. The best returnship programs want their graduates to have a running start at their new jobs. (See also: 10 Companies With the Highest Paid Interns)
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