'Possible now to have a career in the social sector'

The Vedica Scholars Programme for Women has helped many girls move up the ladder with a business education and liberal arts and find what they really want or are suited to do.

Tania Tauro was always clear that she wanted to be in the development sector.

She worked for two NGOs, both in Mumbai, but left as she felt she needed to hone her business knowledge and understanding.
 
Now, after completing the 18-month Vedica Scholars Programme for Women, a unique alternative to the traditional MBA, the 27-year-old joined Tata Trusts and is working on the India Health Fund.
 
Her salary jumped three times from what she had earned before joining the programme. She is excited at the opportunity to work at Tata Trusts and to use the knowledge she  gained through Vedica programme -- a blend of business education and liberal arts.
 
Similarly, Mayuri Dixit, after earning her engineering degree from BITS Pilani and working with an analytics firm in Mumbai, completed the Vedica programme. She has now joined Google in Hyderabad.
 
While she continues to work in analytics, she feels on her own, her chances of joining a company like Google were very slim. The programme, she says, exposed her to a whole new range of ideas and thinking that her engineering degree couldn’t have.

She also reels off names of girls who have madee career switches after the programme.
 
Twenty-seven graduates of the first batch of Vedica scholars -- all of whom have now been placed -- have seen a sharp jump in their salaries too, compared to their previous jobs. The average salary of the incoming batch of girls was Rs 4.8 lakh, which shot up to Rs 10 lakh after completing the course. The highest salary package is Rs 22 lakh.
 
But more than salaries, the programme has helped many girls find what they really want or are suited to do.
 
For instance, Gouri Rajagopal graduated with an engineering degree from the NIT in Trichy in 2014. After working for a year with a data analytics firm in Bangalore, Rajagoal decided to go for the Vedica programme. She has now joined 9.9 Media founder Pramath Sinha to work on a project in the social sector. Till she joined the programme, Rajagopal felt that she couldn’t have a full-fledged career in the development sector as engineering and various science streams were her only exposure.
 
“Now I know it’s possible to have a career in the social sector -- something I have always been passionate about,” she says. Rajagopal, who is single and supports herself says her salary is adequate to live comfortably on.
 
The 18-month residential programme is targeted at getting more women into the corporate workforce and preparing them for the inevitable challenges they will face in their careers. On successful completion of the programme, the scholars are awarded a postgraduate certificate in management practice, offered jointly by the Vedica Foundation and the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication.
 
The founders say many women who work hard to build their corporate careers often tend to leave them after marriage, particularly after having children. That’s one of the reasons one sees very few women in the corporate space in India -- especially at senior levels.
 
“The idea is to help women sustain their careers even after these milestones," says Anuradha Das Mathur, one of the founders of the programme.