A returnship-style coding programme · 18 weeks

You did not lose the skill. The world simply moved while you were somewhere else.

Modern Age Coders built this track for the engineer who left work for maternity in 2018. The MBA who paused her career for a family relocation. The designer who took a year off to look after a parent. The mid-30s consultant who is quietly tired of consulting. The 50-year-old teacher whose children are now grown. The track is honest, structured, mentor-led, and built to put a working portfolio on your desk before you write the first résumé.

Reserve a seat in the next cohort → See the 18-week arc
Cohort 04 graduate

From a five-year break to a backend engineering role in Bangalore.

Age 36 17 weeks

"I had not written a line of code since 2019. By week twelve, I had shipped a small inventory dashboard for my brother-in-law's pharmacy. By week eighteen, I had a job."

Why we made this

India has 12 lakh women trying to come back to work this year. Most never do — not because they can't, but because nothing was built for them.

The standard coding bootcamp assumes you are 22, single, and able to disappear into a laptop for ten hours a day. Returnship programmes at large companies cap out at a few hundred seats and only open during certain quarters. Self-study works for one out of fifteen women who try it. Modern Age Coders built this for the other fourteen.

i.

Time that respects a real life

Six hours a week, split into three flexible slots. Morning class, evening class, or one weekend block — choose what fits the school run, the household, the elder care. You will not be punished for missing a Tuesday. Recordings exist. Mentors are reachable on WhatsApp.

ii.

Judgement-free, on every page

You will not be asked to explain the gap. You will not be paired with 19-year-olds in your first week. Cohorts are women-only, age-spread is 28 to 55, and the first three weeks are designed deliberately so that whatever you forgot, you remember at your own pace. The mentor's first job is to lower your shoulders.

iii.

An exit that is real, not theoretical

Week 18 ends with a working portfolio piece, a public GitHub, a LinkedIn rewrite session led by a recruiter we work with, and warm introductions to companies hiring returnship engineers. We have placed 73 women across our last four cohorts. Some chose freelancing instead. Both count.

Four paths · pick the one that fits

You are not starting from zero — and we will not pretend you are.

The first call with a Modern Age Coders mentor places you on one of four paths depending on what you already know, what you want to do next, and the timeline you can afford. The paths converge in the final weeks at the portfolio stage. Until then, they look very different from each other.

Path 01 · For the former engineer

The rebuild track

If you worked in tech before the break, even briefly — even seven years ago — we treat you as a rebuild, not a beginner. We map the gap (modern frameworks, new tooling, AI assistance) and skip everything you already remember. Most rebuild-track women are work-ready by week 12.

  • Updated Python, Git, FastAPI, modern testing
  • React, Tailwind, Next.js refresh
  • AI pair-programming workflows (Cursor, Copilot)
Best for · women with prior IT, engineering or CS roles
Path 02 · For the analyst & consultant

The data path

If you worked in finance, consulting, marketing, operations, audit or any role that touched spreadsheets — this is the highest-leverage move. We teach Python for data, SQL, dashboarding (Power BI / Tableau), and applied statistics. By week 12 most women on this path are already taking on freelance dashboards for small businesses.

  • Python data stack — Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib
  • SQL for real business questions
  • Dashboards with Streamlit, Power BI, Tableau
Best for · MBAs, CAs, ex-Big-Four, banking, ops, marketing
Path 03 · For the new-to-code

The full beginner track

If you have never written code — teacher, doctor, homemaker, journalist, lawyer, researcher — we begin at the beginning. Eighteen weeks is enough to move you from "I cannot install Python" to "I built and shipped a working web application." The pace is honest. You will work hard. You will not be lost.

  • Python from absolute zero, no prior maths required
  • Web fundamentals — HTML, CSS, JavaScript
  • A real first deployed project by week 14
Best for · women coming from non-tech backgrounds entirely
Path 04 · For the AI curious

The AI tools fast track

The shortest path to relevance in 2026. We teach you to use Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, n8n, Zapier, and the modern AI tooling stack to build automations and workflows that small businesses pay real money for. Many women on this path become freelance "AI operators" within the 18 weeks and never need a job.

  • Prompt engineering, custom GPTs, agent design
  • n8n / Zapier / Make.com automation
  • WhatsApp AI assistants, AI-powered dashboards
Best for · women who want income before they want employment
The arc · 18 weeks · three phases

Phase one rebuilds you. Phase two builds the work. Phase three builds the offer.

The arc is not a video library. There are two live classes a week, a paired study session, a fortnightly mentor 1-on-1, and a monthly "show-and-tell" where you present your work to the cohort. The structure is non-negotiable because the structure is what works.

Weeks 01 — 06 · Foundations

Lower the shoulders, raise the floor.

Three weeks of judgement-free re-orientation. Computer setup, modern tooling, the mental model of programming, the language you will write in. Pace is gentle, mentor attention is heaviest. You will leave Phase One able to look at code on a screen and not freeze.

  • Python or JavaScript fundamentals depending on path
  • Git, GitHub, command line, modern editor habits
  • One small finished project — a tip calculator, a budget tracker, a basic dashboard
  • Weekly mentor check-in, weekly cohort show-and-tell
Weeks 07 — 12 · Builder

Make something real.

The build phase. By the end of week 12 you have shipped a portfolio piece that solves a real problem — your own, a friend's, a small business's. This is the phase that converts students into builders. Many women describe the moment around week 9 when something clicks. We see it every cohort.

  • Full-stack mini-project from scratch — front-end, back-end, deploy
  • API integration, working with real data, authentication basics
  • Code review with the mentor, public commit history
  • Mid-track confidence interview with a hiring manager
Weeks 13 — 18 · Offer

The portfolio, the rewrite, the introductions.

The final six weeks turn the project into evidence. Résumé rewrite with a recruiter. LinkedIn refresh. Mock interviews. A polished portfolio piece. Warm introductions to companies actively running returnship programmes. You will leave with three things: a real piece of work, a real network, and a real plan.

  • Capstone project, deployed and presentable
  • Résumé and LinkedIn rebuilt for a return-to-tech narrative
  • Three to five warm introductions to hiring partners
  • An honest one-on-one on whether to job-hunt or freelance first
Real women · real outcomes · real names withheld on the web

Three women, three breaks, three different exits.

I worked at Infosys until 2017. Then a child, then a relocation, then a second child, then a pandemic. I stopped opening my laptop except to pay bills. When I came to Modern Age Coders I was so sure I had lost the engineer in me. Week six is when I wrote my first Flask route in seven years and laughed out loud. I work at a Series-B startup now. I am the oldest engineer on the team, and the calmest.

Cohort 02 graduate · age 38 · BangaloreBackend engineer, Series-B SaaS company

I am 51. My husband retired two years ago. I had been a school teacher all my life. I joined the AI fast track because my daughter said I should. I now run automations for three small businesses in our neighbourhood. I earn more from this than I did teaching for the last ten years. I tell my friends, do not call this an upskilling. Call it a second beginning.

Cohort 03 graduate · age 51 · PuneIndependent AI automation consultant

I am a CA, took six years off for two children. I joined the data path. By week ten I was building dashboards for my husband's family business and they noticed something in the inventory data that saved them eight lakhs that quarter. I never went back to a corporate job. I freelance now, set my own hours, and finish work before my children are home from school. The track did not give me a job. It gave me my hours back.

Cohort 04 graduate · age 34 · SuratFreelance data analyst

I was an analyst at JP Morgan in London. I quit when our family moved to Dubai eight years ago. The labour market here for women like me was — let us say, narrow. Modern Age Coders was online so geography did not matter. I now work fully remote as a senior data engineer for a fintech in Singapore. The interview was on Zoom. I have not been in an office in nine months.

Cohort 01 graduate · age 42 · DubaiSenior data engineer, Singapore fintech
Six courses · adult-paced · women-only cohorts available

The courses our comeback women most often choose.

Each course below is offered as a small live cohort. For Modern Age Coders Comeback graduates, women-only cohort timings are scheduled at intake. You can enroll directly or — if you would prefer to talk first — book an orientation call below.

Cohorts open every quarter · 24 seats

The next cohort opens soon. Send your details. We will write back.

We open a new cohort every quarter, capped at 24 women. The form below goes to a senior mentor, not a sales team. You will get a reply within 48 hours with a calendar link for a 25-minute conversation, in your time zone, with someone who has walked this path before.

No application fee. No pre-test. The conversation is honest — if Modern Age Coders is not the right fit for where you are, we will tell you what is.

Hold a seat in the next cohort

A senior mentor reads every form. Replies within 48 hours. No sales team in the loop.
The questions women actually ask us

What returning women want to know before they say yes.

I am almost 50. Is this still worth doing?

Yes, and we have placed women in their 50s into real jobs in the last 18 months. Older women bring a different kind of value to engineering teams — calmer judgement, stronger written communication, a longer view on product. The interview question we always coach for is "why now?" — and we have found that women in their 40s and 50s have the most powerful answers. Age is a story problem in this industry, not an arithmetic problem. We help you write the story.

My break was 8 years long. Is that too long?

It is not too long. We have placed women with breaks of 12 years. The length of break matters less than the honesty of the comeback. The market is more open to long breaks now than it has ever been — partly because of remote work, partly because companies have begun to understand that the "lost decade" is often the one in which women built the operational and emotional skills that good engineering needs. We will help you frame it.

What if I cannot code at all? Truly zero.

Then you choose the full beginner track and we begin at "what is a file." This is the most common path in every cohort — about a third of our women come in with no prior code. The pacing is honest, the mentors are gentle, and by week 14 you will surprise yourself with what you can build. Several of our most successful graduates were full beginners. The myth that you need a CS degree to be a software engineer was always a myth. We have the receipts to prove it.

Will I get a job at the end?

That depends on you and on the market. We will tell you the truth — 73 of 96 women across our last four cohorts have either found employment or built a freelance income within four months of graduating. Some did not pursue work; we did not chase them. The placement effort from our side includes a résumé rewrite, LinkedIn refresh, mock interviews, warm introductions to our hiring partners, and ongoing mentorship for six months after graduation. If you do the work in the 18 weeks, the outcome is highly likely. We will not guarantee it because guarantees in this field are always lies.

Is this a women-only programme? My husband / brother is also looking to upskill.

Cohorts on this specific track are women-only — that is deliberate. We have found that the first three weeks of unlearning the gap-shame work much faster in a women-only room. For male family members looking to learn or restart their careers, we have separate adult-focused tracks; please write to us and we will recommend the right one. Most likely it will be our adult coding programme or a relevant professionals track.

How does this compare with Coding Ninjas, Scaler, Newton School, or a Returnship at TCS / Wipro?

Those are excellent programmes for different audiences. Coding Ninjas and Scaler assume you can put in 25–40 hours a week and are a viable employment target. Corporate returnships at large IT companies are real but cap out at a few hundred seats nationally and are heavily competitive. Our programme is built for a different shape of life: 6 hours a week, fully online, mentor-led, women-only, and not tied to a single employer. We complement those programmes; we do not compete with them. We will refer you to a Returnship at TCS or to Scaler if we think it suits you better. We mean that.

What does it cost? And do you offer scholarships?

The full track is priced as an 18-week programme with a single fee, payable in three instalments. Full transparent pricing is on our pricing page or via the fee calculator. We run a quiet scholarship for women in financial difficulty, single mothers, and women coming out of caregiving roles for elderly parents or special-needs children. There is no application form for the scholarship — we discuss it on the orientation call. We are not loud about it. It is simply available.

I am abroad — does this work outside India?

Yes. About 30% of our comeback cohort lives outside India. Class slots are scheduled in your local time zone (you pick one of three options at enrolment). Country-specific information lives on our pages for USA, UK, Canada, UAE, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland and New Zealand.

What is the difference between this and the regular "coding classes for girls" page?

Our coding classes for girls page is for school-going girls — ages 8 to 17. This page is for adult women returning to or entering the workforce. The pedagogy, pace, peer group and outcomes are different. If you are a parent thinking about your daughter, the other page is the right one. If you are thinking about yourself, you are in the right place.

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