Amidst the scramble to fill vacancies in the energy and defense sectors, thousands of highly skilled individuals are sitting on the sidelines of the workforce. These are professionals who have already undergone rigorous training, earned their qualifications, and accumulated years of on-the-job experience. However, due to career breaks, redundancies, or the complexities of navigating life changes, they find themselves unable to re-enter the industries they once helped build. Natalie Desty, the founder of STEM Returners, is currently leading a high-profile crusade to change this dynamic, arguing that the solution to Britain’s skills gap is not just about looking forward to the youth, but looking back at those the industry has prematurely discarded.
Desty’s insights are born from years spent in the trenches of engineering recruitment. During her tenure, she observed a recurring and frustrating pattern: perfectly capable candidates were being systematically filtered out of the recruitment process because their resumes did not adhere to a traditional, linear format. In an era where automated recruitment software and rigid HR protocols often prioritize "neat" CVs over actual capability, any gap in employment—regardless of the reason—can become an insurmountable barrier. Desty witnessed firsthand how the industry was effectively turning its back on a wealth of expertise at a time when it could least afford to do so.
The scale of this untapped potential is staggering. Desty recalls a pivotal moment about a year before she launched STEM Returners, during a Women’s Engineering Society conference. A speaker noted that there are approximately 75,000 people in the UK who have left STEM careers but would eagerly return if a viable pathway existed. This figure represents a massive loss of national investment. These are individuals in whom the state and private companies have already invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in education and training, yet their skills are currently providing zero return to the economy.
A significant portion of this missing workforce is comprised of women, highlighting a systemic failure in how the engineering and technology sectors manage mid-career retention. According to Desty, 46% of the returners she works with are women, a figure that stands in stark contrast to the wider engineering industry, where women make up only about 12% of the workforce. The reasons for this exodus are often rooted in the intersection of professional life and family responsibilities. Caring for children or elderly relatives remains the primary reason people step away from their roles, and the industry’s historical lack of flexibility has forced many to choose between their careers and their families.
