Second Careers Internship Programme: the Tata Group’s attempts to entice professional women back into employment in India CLARE KELLIHER
A major challenge facing companies in developing economies is coping with the lack of skilled staff. In rapidly developing economies, such as India, companies have an immediate need for highly qualified talent. Whilst investment in education by governments can produce a workforce with the right skills for the future, companies facing skills shortages may need to look for other ways of accessing skills. One way may be to try and attract people who are not currently in the labour force back into work. The Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerate companies (their activities span IT, engineering, services, chemicals, energy and consumer products), has developed a scheme designed to persuade professional women to re-engage with
employment following a career break, by offering an alternative to full-time, permanent employment – flexible, project-based work. In India, although women increasingly participate in higher education and well-qualified female graduates enter employment on graduation, in the region of 40 per cent leave employment within the first 10 years, normally to take on family responsibilities. The Tata Group scheme, the Second Career Internship Programme, was launched on International Women’s Day in 2008.

It is set up as a career transition management programme for women professionals who have taken not more than eight years out of employment. The scheme is designed to bring professional women back into work, but on a flexible basis. The scheme engages women to work on live business projects, but they can work on a flexitime basis and some projects may also be amenable to be being done partly from home. The projects typically involve approximately 500 hours of work input over a five- to six-month period for companies in the Tata Group. Details of when and where work is done are agreed with the project lead. Participants in the scheme go through an induction programme to help them back into work and to update their skills. They are also provided with mentors for the project. This scheme is not designed to provide full-time, permanent job opportunities, but rather to provide opportunities for professional women to work in alternative ways, on a short-term, project basis. Participants may, however, subsequently explore full-time, permanent employment with the company. Approximately 30 per cent of the women who have participated in the scheme are now working for the group on a full- or part-time basis.
Questions
1 How well do you think a scheme like this actually helps in solving problems of skills shortage for large companies like Tata? Would it work for all companies?
2 What are likely to be the important factors influencing the successful implementation of a scheme like this?
3 Are there groups, other than women, who might be attracted by a scheme like this?