One of the world’s largest and most successful travel companies Booking.com has recently welcomed 12 new software developers from Tech Returners into its Manchester based team. Booking.com is continuing its ongoing partnership with Tech Returners, an organisation specialising in upskilling engineers to return to the tech industry after a career break.
Booking.com’s Trips division, which will move into its new £100m home at Manchester’s Enterprise City later this year, has created the roles having sponsored its second cohort of candidates through Tech Returners’ ‘Your Return to Tech’ programme.
The 8-week course is designed and proven to tackle the industry’s well-documented skills shortage and provide software developers – the majority of which are women – with a free route back to high-quality employment after a career break.
The full-time appointments started in June and cover roles across the company’s Trips division, including its Taxis, Cars, Insurance and Data teams, and forms part of its plan to significantly grow the business’ 1,000-strong presence in the city.
Beyond refreshing and re-skilling individuals from a technical perspective, the programme also provides each participant with career and mindset coaching, drilling down into different skills and behaviours from how to rebuild confidence to interview preparation and practice.
To date, the Tech Returners programme has placed more than 100 mid-level software developers into a range of UK-based organisations that value diversity in their technical teams, including The Guardian, Daemon and The BBC.
Matthias Schmid, SVP for the Booking.com Trips division said: “As the travel industry experiences a resurgence following the pandemic, we have ambitious plans to create a vast range of new roles to join the 300 skilled professionals we’ve already hired across our Trips team this year alone. The city’s world-class talent is a key reason why we call Manchester home. Working with progressive organisations like Tech Returners means we can provide a platform and career pathways for diverse talent to shine, deliver game-changing innovation and ultimately fly the flag for the local tech scene internationally.”
Beckie Taylor, CEO and Co-founder of Tech Returners commented: “As a team passionate about building diverse tech teams and supporting people to realise their potential, we are beyond proud to see another successful cohort of returners get back to their careers and back to themselves.
It’s a privilege to collaborate with organisations, like Booking.com, that are capable of seeing beyond the perceived stigma that accompanies a career break and that instead recognise the expertise, skills and value that this demographic brings to the tech industry. We’ve seen time and time again that an opportunity is all someone needs to reignite their career in tech.”
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