Pair helped hundreds of mothers get back into work

Two women from Bristol who have helped hundreds of mothers back into work have spoken about the joy their jobs give them.

Camilla Rigby and Rachel Mostyn set up Women's Work Lab (WWL) in 2019, after seeing the challenges faced by mothers trying to get back into the workplace after having children.

Since then, more than 800 women have used the organisation's services to grow their confidence, learn new skills and find employment.

"The very point of our programmes is to give [help to] mums who haven't worked for a long time," said Mostyn.

WWL offers free classroom places, work courses and mentoring for women in Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire and Somerset and all run during school hours.

"We support long-term unemployed mums in receipt of benefits back into work via training and work placement programmes," Mostyn said.

"Lots of the mums we work with have had particular barriers to working.

"They may be survivors of domestic abuse, they may be new to the UK, they may have children with special needs or their own health conditions.

"The whole point of our programmes is to give you the confidence, let you see what an excellent person you are, and what value you can add to a workplace."

Rigby said the pair, both mums themselves, saw that there was "a gap in support" for mums.

"Specialist support tends to stop around [age] 25," she said.

"Beyond that there seems to be this expectation that, 'well, you're grown up, so you've got it all figured out' and it's just not true.

"We, as mums had seen and experienced the huge changes that you go through, your confidence just disappears, almost overnight, especially within a workplace scenario."

Mostyn said that the challenges many women face during motherhood lead to the development of transferable skills:

"You have got negotiation, you've got tenacity, you've got conflict management, you've got budgeting, you've got all of these things," she said.

"Actually the barrier for you might be [that] the shiny offices in town feel like alien places."

The pair were given honorary doctorates by the University of the West of England in July in recognition of their contribution.

"So much of what we aim to do with the programme is help people to realise their own potential," said Rigby.

"Confidence isn't about someone telling you to be confident, or telling you how to be confident, it's something that comes from within, and that for us is always the real success," she added.

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