STEM Reentry Task Force

The STEM Reentry Task Force is the groundbreaking, collaborative, career reentry initiative co-led by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and iRelaunch.

Founded in 2015, the mission of the Task Force is to:

enable leading employers across a wide range of industry sectors to diversify their mid-to-senior-level workforce by hiring from the predominantly female pool of professionals who have taken a career break; and
provide participating employers with the framework, training, and collaborative setting to enable their creation of career reentry programs to recruit, onboard, support, and retain these talented returning professionals.

Employers can join the Task Force at any time during the year to start building their program. Given the technical focus of the Task Force, programs typically start with technical roles exclusively or with technical roles in the mix with non-technical roles. Task Force employer programs are open to all genders.

Two woman wearing hardhats while working in industrial setting

New Task Force employer member benefits include an expert-guided, one-on-one, customized career reentry program-building experience, enhanced by the exclusive opportunity to interact with and learn from Task Force alumni organizations and other experts in moderated, regularly-scheduled roundtable discussions.

In addition, employer members receive early access to proprietary research and identification of trends, innovations, and best practices, a hallmark of Task Force participation, plus the power of the joint outreach of SWE and iRelaunch to their respective communities when recruiting and sourcing relaunchers to participate in their programs.

Diverse team collaborating with markers on clear wall

After their inaugural year, members continue to enjoy Task Force benefits, including invitations to roundtable sessions.
Task Force employer program leaders and participants are regularly featured at SWE's annual Conference which attracts over 21,000 attendees.

Since its inception, 44 employers have participated in the STEM Reentry Task Force, 34 career reentry programs have launched, and over 1,000 relaunchers have participated with an 85% hire rate after completing their Task Force employer program.

Congratulations....Our Career Reboot program, that you helped us launch, is going strong at CDM Smith and the incredibly talented women that have joined us to restart their professional careers have been amazing contributors. Thanks for helping us years ago to be the first in our industry.

Timothy Wall CEO, CDM Smith and 2019 STEM Reentry Task Force member