“Beginning the second innings of your career shouldn’t be hard for anybody,” said Bhavini Gadhiwala, one of thousands of Indian women who has returned to her career after earning a VMware certification through the VMinclusion Taara Women Return to Work Program.
In India, many women leave the workforce to care for children or ailing family members. Nearly 90% of these caregivers are female1. About one-third are aged 31-45, which means they’re leaving in the middle of their careers2. For many women who do return to work after a break, continuing their professional journey remains challenging. For example, almost half of all women who return from maternity leave depart the workforce again after four months3. This caregiving burden, along with societal pressures, creates a large gender gap.
Around 21 million women dropped out of India’s labor force between 2017 and 2022, at a rate far higher than men4.
In 2019 VMinclusion launched Taara to help close this gap by upskilling women and empowering them to continue their careers.
“To this day, I am thankful to Taara for helping me acquire the skills and giving me the confidence I needed to restart my career,” Bhavini continues. “It gave my life a new direction and helped me prove that age or time away from the workforce don’t matter; only determination, skills and confidence do.”
Bhavini’s words about determination, skills and confidence likely ring true for the more than 5,000 other women who have also earned certifications through Taara. More than two years into the program, we look at how its graduates have benefited, in their own words.
VMinclusion Taara offers user-friendly upskilling courses
Many graduates have talked about one of their favorite Taara offerings: the opportunity to upskill in digital transformation technologies, free of cost. Graduates noted how easy the upskilling courses were to follow and learn from.
“The beauty of the Taara program is that it is user-friendly,” said Deepthi Grandhi, who left her job due to her husband’s relocation. “The materials, videos and support provided are amazing.”
Amruta Bisain took a career break to focus on her family. Taara helped her get back into a regular work environment with these easy-to-follow courses in digital transformation technologies. “The program is designed to upgrade your skills using layman language, which makes it easy to grasp.” She also noted that the program is interactive and covers many relevant areas of technology that she uses in her career today.
Taara’s hands-on training provides skills, confidence to succeed
Thanks to the program Deepthi, Amruta and others not only benefited from the convenience of these courses, but also the hands-on training that helped them gain confidence to jump back into their careers. They experienced modern digital transformation technologies, like cloud computing and network virtualization in a uniquely hands-on method. Using this learning method, graduates built skill sets applicable to today’s business environment, leaving them empowered to return confidently to the workforce.
Arthi Narasimhan is just one example of how this hands-on approach was effective for her. She took a career break to raise her child and found the Taara program when she began planning her return. She described it as “an engrossing process” that “helped me rebuild my confidence as well.” Today, she is a certified cloud solutions architect working as an engineering manager in a multinational technology company.
Taara graduates extol strong sense of community
Besides building her confidence by engrossing herself in technology, Arthi notes another important benefit of the Taara program was a strong sense of community with the program trainers, as well as other women taking Taara courses.
Arthi is not the only woman who felt this sense of community. “This experience of learning and connecting with other women helped boost my confidence immensely,” said Kaustubha V.
Anindita Datta also remembers how helpful it was to have the Taara community along with her. “There were also mentors and program coordinators to address any queries one might have regarding the program … There were even soft skills training sessions and interactive sessions with industry leaders to help women on career breaks prepare for interviews.”
Amruta Bisain likewise recalls how helpful the Taara community was in resuming her career. “The beauty of the Taara program is you are always connected with trainers and other students.”
In an era where most communications happen virtually, taking courses online and navigating a career path can feel isolating. That’s why Taara makes it a point to help women build a community to support their return to the workforce.
VMinclusion hopes Taara will help 15,000 women resume their careers
Sapna G., one of the program’s first graduates, felt particularly inspired by her time with the women of Taara. “It is reassuring, she said, “to know that organizations like VMware have our backs with initiatives like Taara that actually empower women and help us fly again.”
Taara has already helped more than 5,000 women fly again. But this is only the beginning. VMinclusion aims to upskill and train 15,000 women when all is said and done.
That so many Taara graduates have returned to the workforce is the sort of meaningful impact the program founders hoped for upon its inception. Graduates’ success is proof that with some industry support and commitment, a career break doesn’t have to hold women back from achieving their professional goals.
Learn more about the wonderful women of the Taara program and their personal stories.
Interested in finding out more about how VMware certifications can help your career? Check out VMware courses and certifications.
2 Indian Journal of Continuing Nursing Education Research Article
