Michelle Carchrae
Restarting a career that has been put on hold to focus on parenting is a challenging prospect for many women. The Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, is offering ReConnect, a seven day course for women with management experience who want to re-enter the workforce after spending time focused on other areas of life.
Refresh Business Skills, Practice Goal Setting and Build Confidence
Mary Heisz, Faculty Director, ReConnect describes the program's two main goals as helping women get their confidence back up and refreshing their skills, goals and business knowledge. ReConnect does this by updating skills in finance, marketing and business practices as well as focusing on personal goals and the skills needed to achieve those goals, such as networking, resume writing, interviewing and negotiating. ReConnect is generously sponsored by CIBC, and interview skills are put into practice with mock interviews with CIBC recruiters, who provide valuable feedback that helps women refine their interview technique.
Mothers Overcome Challenges When Returning to a Career
Refreshing business knowledge and interviewing skills are not the only challenges mothers face when returning to work. Knowing how to address the hole in your resume in a positive way, dealing with negative attitudes from people who haven't been away from work and juggling the logistics of work/life balance are all big challenges that women face when they refocus on their careers. Carla Sandrin, a 2008 graduate of the ReConnect program, recently started her own business after 15 years at home. In "ReConnect helped me define what I wanted to do and gave me the tools to create my calling card, to say, 'this is what I can do for you,'" Carla said in a telephone interview on September 22, 2009.
Who Will Benefit Most From ReConnect?
ReConnect focuses on refreshing existing skills in management and finance, so it is best suited to women who have had some previous experience leading people and working with financial records. While the tuition fee has been heavily subsidized by CIBC to bring it down to $3,500, ReConnect recognizes that if a woman has been away from work for some time this fee may still be prohibitive. Additional financial assistance has been made available by CIBC.
Successful Graduates of ReConnect 2008
Judging by the success of the 2008 program, the combination of a comfortable retreat setting and highly skilled professors adds up to an extremely positive experience for the diverse group of participants. "I could not have been more pleased with how participants felt about the program last year," Mary Heisz, Faculty Director, ReConnect said in a telephone interview on September 24, 2009. Despite the challenges of 2008's economic crisis many graduates successfully relaunched their careers, and a few were able to identify their own personal goals well enough to say that they weren't ready to refocus on their career. One even had the confidence to leave a brand-new position and search for another because it wasn't challenging enough for her needs.
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