Gender pressure mounts in auto mechanics workforce

Although women are massively underrepresented in the field of auto mechanics, with just 614 employed across Australia compared to 69,456 males, a new pilot program that has recently got under way in Sydney could begin to address that.

Sponsored by Fiat Chrysler Australia, the Women in Auto Trades program is the first of its kind in NSW and kicked off recently with a five-week, full-time mechanics induction course at the Ultimo TAFE campus in Sydney.

The stated aim of the program is to address skills shortages, while seeking to “empower women through employment in the auto industry”. It is “designed to increase the awareness of careers and apprenticeships in the automotive industry and to increase the levels of apprentices completing their initial training.”

Among the nine women who graduated this month was 40-year-old bus driver Amanda Stevens, who quit university studies in criminology to participate in the course with an aim of becoming a diesel mechanic.

The nature of bus-driving, where shift work makes it difficult to balance the needs of a growing family, attracted Amanda to a career change that would see her fixing buses, rather than driving them.

“I loved this course and I’m really sad that it’s over. It really has set me up for the next phase of my career,” she said.

Stevens will join the group of women who completed the course in seeking full-time apprenticeships in the auto industry.

The program will address the Australia-wide imbalance in the auto trade, where women represent just four per cent of the total workforce of mechanics. In NSW the figure is even lower, at just 1.2 per cent.

The nine graduates also included Michelle Kay, 19, from Toongabbie, Kahleigha Ripley, also 19, from Punchbowl, Zhane Saylor, 20, and Loretta Zarich Santo-Tapin, 24, both from Macquarie Fields, Sam Pedavoli, 23, from Greystanes, and Meng Wei, 24, from Penshurst.