India – Women have been geared up that to become a mom is to take a long pause, which most of the time means letting go of their current careers to make time for family. This rings true across all industries, and in the creative industry, Dentsu Webchutney, the digital-led creative agency from the dentsu network in India, is stepping up to make it easier for moms that have worked in advertising and marketing to make a smooth comeback.
The talent development program called ‘The Ad Fellows Returnship’ is a partnership with Indian Creative Women, an independent forum that works towards furthering diversity in creative teams across the advertising and design industry in India. The program will be a 30-day back-to-work program for moms, where creative moms that have been part of the industry before will be retrained and have their skills refreshed to take on roles in different working areas of copywriting, animation, graphic design, and hybrid creative, among others.
‘The Ad Fellows Returnship’ is a long-standing program of Dentsu Webchutney, where in 2020, it took the form of a virtual internship from home for 50 people. Meanwhile, in 2019, The Ad Fellows made advertising a career option for chartered accountants and IT professionals, and the year before that, a program called ‘Pause the Resume’ hired internet natives out of nothing but their browser history.
For the new version, creative moms will be paired with creatives at Dentsu Webchutney and the Indian Creative Women network to equip themselves with what they need to be industry-ready again. With the fast-changing nature of marketing services in the middle of a new demand for digital, the two parties have developed a fresh syllabus along with teaching techniques for the program, with modules on confidence-building and digital creatives.
The program itself is completely free and will begin on 1 July, 2021, with the application period to run from 1 June to 10 June 2021.
The Dentsu Webchutney team strongly believes in the power of perspectives to make ideas stronger and sees diversity in talent as a means for more diverse work.
“The program has been chartered by a passionate woman-strong team that believes more mothers need to put their lived experiences on the table. We’ve certainly got a long way to go ourselves but we’re very proud to partner with Indian Creative Women and take this much overdue step forward,” commented the team.
Meanwhile, the team of Indian Creative Women shared that the program has been hugely influenced by its group creative director who is a mom herself. The team said that until today, women face several systemic and structural challenges that get in the way of them growing into senior leadership roles and that the industry isn’t doing enough to retain them, specifically, mothers.
“A woman is still blamed if she quits the industry after becoming a mother. There’s simply no organizational support for her to succeed. Dentsu Webchutney’s The Ad Fellows Returnship is a small step in the right direction and should be a great example of what other agencies can follow,” they said.
Interested moms can apply for the program through this form.