Toyota Fleet Management (TFM) has partnered with the Australasian Fleet Management Association to offer a scholarship program for women to attain the AFMA Diploma of Leadership and Management.
Under the Scholarship Program, TFM sponsors a 70% scholarship for Women in Fleet and Fleet Leaders Under 30 that helps recipients undertake the Diploma course at Melbourne’s Swinburne University.
The course provides comprehensive training in fleet management, addressing industry-specific challenges and trends and offers access to top-tier education, to help foster innovation and drive change.
It’s hoped the initiative will help to address the gender imbalance and lack of equality that exists in the transport industry. Australia’s transport sector is the third most male dominated sector by employment, behind construction and mining.
Currently, women make up just 27.4% of Australia’s transport workforce.
Statistics from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency also show that the gender pay gap in the transport sector is higher than the national average – 15.9% as against 13.9% – and just 4.5% of transport CEOs are women – well below the Australian average of 20%.
Jessy Davis, a young indigenous woman who works as a Fleet Administrative Officer for NSW Department of Planning & Environment in Orange, was the recipient of the 2022 Fleet Leaders Under 30 AFMA Scholarship.
“I was lucky enough to attend an AfMA conference in Melbourne where the Diploma in
Leadership and Management was discussed. My manager suggested that it would be
good for me to look at doing this course to further my career in the fleet industry,” she says.
“I researched the scholarship application on the AfMA website and applied for the Women in Fleet scholarship that was sponsored by Toyota Fleet Management. I applied for the scholarship online and was delighted when I was advised that I was the recipient of it.”
Jessy says the scholarship has helped her career in the transport sector in many ways.
“Firstly, as a proud aboriginal woman I hope that my receiving the scholarship and successfully completing the course will inspire other young aboriginal people to follow my lead.”
“The Diploma course has been extremely beneficial for me in my role. I had limited management experience before starting the course however the course gave me great exposure to be a successful leader in the future.
“During the course I was able to work with different people and learn from them and their experiences while sharing mine with them.
“Receiving the scholarship and completing the course has given me the confidence to be
able to further my career in the fleet environment.”
She is currently employed in the Fleet Operations team within the Department of Planning & Environment.
“I have a portfolio of clients that I manage including looking after the full life cycle of the
vehicle from purchase to disposal,” she says.
“I have enjoyed the work our department has done in introducing vehicle telematics and
electric vehicles into our fleet. The work we have done in these areas has shown the
Department to be leading NSW Government in telematics and EVs.
“I also do a large amount of work with the telematics data that we receive from our
vehicles, I work closely with our Health & Safety team when ever we identify at risk
driver behaviour for example speeding and fatigue.
“This information is put through our Health & Safety system for discussion with the driver and their manager. We also use the telematics data to be able to charge our clients our c/km charges, I am also heavily involved in preparing this data from the telematics.”
She says completing the diploma has also allowed her to reassess her long-term career goals.
“I have also worked closely with our Fleet Manager and have learnt a lot from him around
managing a large and diverse fleet.”
“My overall goal in the fleet industry is to become a Fleet Manager within a government fleet environment.”
She says she would strongly recommend other women to take up the scholarship opportunity.
“Firstly, I would like to thank Toyota Fleet Management for their sponsorship of the
scholarship and recognising the importance of getting more women into what a male
has traditionally been dominated industry.”
“I would strongly recommend that any woman considering applying for the scholarship
do so.
“The course opened my eyes to the different management techniques that I will use as I
progress through my career. I particularly enjoyed interacting with people from other
areas and listening to how they operate and the challenges they face.
“Being able to use the skills learnt in the course and applying it to a Fleet scenario was also extremely beneficial to me and I am sure it would be to other people considering applying for the course. While it was a lot of work it was so very rewarding,” says Jessy.
For more information and how to apply details, click here.
