FanDuel launches new programme to support women into the gaming industry
Operator to feature STEM Returners program at Edinburgh collaboration hub as part of efforts to increase workforce diversity
FanDuel has partnered with female-geared recruitment agency STEM Returners on a new initiative aiming to bring more women into the gaming technology industry.
The operator will feature a STEM Returners program at its collaboration hub in Edinburgh, offering new roles including software developer, senior software developer and software engineering manager.
For its part, STEM Returners, which aims to help women returning to work in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics sectors will source candidates for these roles.
The consultancy will provide candidates with additional support including advice, career coaching, and mentoring while ensuring applicants are ready and confident to return to work.
Applicants will undertake a fully paid 12-week ‘returnship’ which aims to allow candidates to be reintegrated into an inclusive work environment on completion.
The program is part of several initiatives featured by FanDuel which aim to enhance diversity and employee experience within the organization.
FanDuel SVP of software engineering Mathew Taylor highlighted the need to encourage diversity in FanDuel’s workforce, both through creating the right environment and through recruitment.
“We believe we can help drive change not only in our talent pipelines but also the industry as a whole by investing in these partnerships and skilled individuals,” Taylor said.
“This program is just one of the avenues that FanDuel is taking to address the under-representation of minority groups within the industry, and we are delighted to partner with STEM returners to support this initiative,” he added.
According to annual research by STEM Returners, presented in its STEM Returners Index, nearly a third of women (29%) said they feel they have personally experienced bias in recruitment processes due to their gender compared to 7% of men.
STEM Returners have placed more than 400 candidates in STEM program roles across the UK since its establishment in 2017.
Addressing the partnership, STEM Returners director Natalie Desty said: “We are delighted to be partnering with an industry expert like FanDuel to support more women into the gaming industry.
“Under a third of the workforce in the UK games industry are female. But the number of women playing games is rapidly rising so it makes absolute sense to ensure there is more female representation in the companies that make the games.
“Only by partnering with industry leaders like FanDuel, will we make vital changes in recruitment practices, to improve diversity and inclusion.” Desty concluded.