It has always been a challenge to make a career comeback. For women, joining the workforce again is even harder as their reasons for a career break are mostly personal (example - for maternity leave) and the duration of the break is longer. But, there are companies in India who understand the potential of women and provide them with an equal opportunity to polish their skills and make a career comeback. There are many second career option in India and getting a job after a career break in India.
Tata second career internship programme was launched in March 2008. It is a career transition management programme for women professionals who have taken a break of 6 months or more for any reason, and wish to re-enter the professional space. The programme provides opportunities for such women to take on flexi-hour assignments with various TATA group companies. This programme gives women on a break the perfect opportunity to kickstart their second innings.
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IBM's bring her back program is meant to attract women who have taken a mid-career sabbatical. Any woman professional with the requisite skill-set can apply, and anyone with, at maximum, three years of personal sabbatical qualifies for the programme which includes a 12-week internship working on challenging high-level projects.
Careers 2.0 is an initiative by Godrej to help women return to work after a career break. The programme requires women to have at least 2 years of prior work experience. It offers women the opportunity to work on live business projects for a period of 3-6 months on either full-time or part-time basis for which stipend is provided depending on the nature of the project.
Career by Choice programme of HUL is based on the need to provide a comprehensive transition programme to help women step back into the corporate world after a career break. Like Godrej's Careers 2.0, this programme also requires you to have 2 years of prior work experience. The programme allows women to work on live projects with a project guide. The work timings are also kept flexible with options to work from home.
Back in the Game (B.I.G.) is a unique initiative recently launched by Philips India that provides a platform to women talent to return to a corporate career at Philips, post a break in their career (due to lifestyle, personal or any other reason). This internship program is aimed at providing these interns necessary mentorship and an environment of flexibility as they resume their careers at Philips.
Intel India has launched a one-of-its-kind 'Home to Office or H20' initiative that will help bring women back to work from their career breaks due to family or personal needs. Watch these 2 women describing their return to work stories with H20:
The Restart program at GE’s John F Welch Technology Centre, Bangalore is a program that focuses exclusively on hiring women scientists and engineers who have taken a career break and wish to get back to work.
In 2014, Axis bank started Re-connect– a program that offered jobs to former women employees who have left the system in the past 10 years, in select states.