The second cohort of the EmpowHer VMCE+ Accelerator puts 50 women on a structured 14-week path to industry-recognised certification and real technical careers in data resilience and AI infrastructure.

by Kasun Illankoon, Editor in Chief at Tech Revolt

The tech industry has a habit of talking about the talent pipeline problem as if naming it were the same as solving it. Conferences dedicate panels to it. Annual reports quantify it. Corporate diversity pledges gesture toward it. And yet the numbers persist. Women currently hold roughly 28 percent of AI and technical roles globally, against a backdrop in which the demand for skilled technology professionals is accelerating faster than most workforce development strategies can keep up with.

Veeam Software, the data protection and AI trust company, is not claiming to have solved this problem. What it is doing with the second cohort of its EmpowHer VMCE+ Accelerator is something more specific and arguably more useful: it is handing 50 early to mid-career women a structured, credential-backed path into technical careers, removing the two barriers that tend to matter most in practice. The cost of getting in. And the absence of a community once you are there.

A 14-Week Program Built Around Certification, Not Just Awareness

The EmpowHer VMCE+ Accelerator is a 14-week cohort program designed around the first course in the VMCE+ (Veeam Certified Engineer) training bundle. Participants gain hands-on experience installing, configuring, and managing the Veeam Data Platform through self-paced learning via Veeam University PRO, alongside cohort sessions led by VMCE+ certified leaders from Women in Green, one of Veeam's own employee resource groups. Completing the program earns participants a badge, a structured pathway to the full VMCE+ certification exam, and eligibility to be considered for open technical roles at the company.

That last point is not decorative. One of the persistent criticisms of diversity-in-tech initiatives is that they stop at inspiration: the workshop, the networking event, the keynote featuring a relatable success story. What they rarely offer is a direct, friction-reduced route into a job. The EmpowHer model is designed to compress the distance between training and employment. The program is explicitly framed around reducing time-to-hire and shortening onboarding ramp time for future talent, which means it is structured to serve both the participants and the organisations that will eventually hire them.

The Certification Argument

The case for putting certification at the centre of this kind of program is made most clearly by Emilee Tellez, Field CTO at Veeam, who has some personal authority on the subject.

"While the tech industry has made progress, there is still more to do to ensure access and encourage the diversity of thought that fuels creativity and innovation. We asked a simple question: how can we better support women in technology? For me, the answer was clear. Certifications, including those from Veeam, played a critical role in my own career, and VMCE+ represents the kind of hands-on, in-demand expertise that helps people stand out and succeed. That is why EmpowHer VMCE+ is the right answer. We have already seen the impact, with women leaving the program stronger in their technical skills, more confident in their voice, and more visible in their workplaces. With this next cohort, we are continuing to open that door, giving more women the tools, community, and opportunity to build real momentum in their careers."

Tellez's framing matters because it sidesteps the common platitude loop. The program does not lead with the importance of representation in the abstract. It leads with a practical instrument, the kind that Tellez herself used to build her career, and asks what it would take to make that instrument accessible at scale to women who might otherwise lack the financial means, the peer network, or the employer support to pursue it independently.

What the First Cohort Actually Produced

Programs like this are easy to describe in prospective terms. The more telling evidence tends to come from what participants say after they have been through it. Cordelia Dean, an alumna of the inaugural EmpowHer VMCE cohort, offers something more specific than a testimonial.

"I am incredibly grateful to Veeam for selecting me to participate in the EmpowHer VMCE program, an experience that has opened doors far beyond anything I imagined. Through the program, I gained valuable technical expertise, achieved my VMCE certification and applied these skills directly in real world environments, while also growing in confidence both personally and professionally. Just as importantly, I became part of a global community of talented women in technology, building meaningful relationships and networks that continue to shape my career. This initiative is about more than certification, it is about creating opportunity, inspiring confidence, and demonstrating that there is a place for women in technology. I will always appreciate the investment Veeam has made in me and in so many other women around the world."

Dean's account touches on something that tends to get underweighted in the design of technical upskilling programs: the community effect. The value of arriving somewhere with a cohort of peers, rather than alone, is difficult to quantify and rarely gets built deliberately into workforce development initiatives. The EmpowHer model treats it as a core feature, not an afterthought, giving participants access to a global peer network that continues beyond the 14-week program itself.

The AI Talent Problem Makes This More Urgent, Not Less

The broader context for this program is a tightening supply of technical talent at precisely the moment when enterprise demand for it is accelerating. The AI-driven transformation that Veeam and its customers are navigating together requires professionals who understand not just how to deploy AI systems, but how to manage, protect, and govern the data infrastructure those systems depend on. Those are skills in short supply across the industry, and the gap is compounded by the chronic underrepresentation of women in the roles most directly connected to that work.

Dave Russell, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategy at Veeam, makes the operational logic explicit.

"As organizations accelerate AI adoption, the need for skilled talent who understand how to manage, protect and unlock data has never been more critical. Programs like EmpowHer VMCE+ are essential to building the next generation of technical expertise while broadening access to opportunity. By investing in skills, certification and community, we are not only strengthening the talent pipeline, but also helping organizations build the foundation for trusted data and responsible AI."

Russell's framing connects the program to a business rationale that goes beyond corporate social responsibility. The argument is that a more diverse, better-credentialed talent pipeline is a structural requirement for the AI economy, not a nice-to-have. An industry that systematically fails to develop technical talent from the full population is an industry that will run short of the skills it needs at exactly the wrong time.

The Broader Model: From Awareness to Architecture

Since its initial launch, EmpowHer has evolved from a general initiative into a focused accelerator with a specific structural logic. It removes three distinct barriers in sequence: the financial cost of certification training, the absence of structured guidance through the learning path, and the isolation that often accompanies early-career technical roles. The program handles all three simultaneously, which is rare, and that combination is what produces the outcome Dean describes: not just a credential, but a career trajectory that feels genuinely different after completing it.

For the 50 women selected for this second cohort, the program offers something the industry has repeatedly promised and rarely delivered: a technically rigorous, community-supported, employment-connected pathway into data resilience and AI infrastructure careers. That is a narrow but consequential wedge. If it works consistently at this scale, and the first cohort suggests it does, it represents a model worth watching carefully.

Applications for the second EmpowHer VMCE+ Accelerator cohort are open now. 

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