While women are still under-represented in South Africa’s transport sector, the Commercial Transport Academy (CTA) is striving to change that narrative.
Having launched three structured programmes under the “Women inspiring women to lead in transport” initiative this month (see https://www.freightnews.co.za/article/empowering-women-transport-sector), founder of the CTA, Nicci Scott, is a firm believer that with support from industry, these programmes will continue to change the lives of many women across the country.
Talking to Freight News about the ‘Female Entrepreneurs to Run with It’ programme, Scott said it was fully funded and aimed at assisting and educating female micro businesses and SME entrepreneurs in the logistics, transport, supply chain and/or warehousing/operations industries.
“Our programme will assist women business owners to build their business management knowledge and competence, improve their management and leadership capabilities, operate more efficiently, and improve their financial management skills,” she said.
“Small enterprises in particular need a strong business network to collaborate and access opportunities. Part of the programme includes GrowthWheel, a cloud-based platform that enables participants to work together and make their businesses grow,” she added.
The programme has an intake of 300 women.
“The aim of these programmes is to empower women to prosper in the workforce and to enable them to participate in the economy,” Scott concluded.
The “Women inspiring women to lead in transport” initiative is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with strong industry support from Hollard, Volvo, Ctrack, Standard Bank, Onelogix/Trucklogix, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), and Commerce Edge.
Freight News will publish the third and final article in this series at the end of week, this time focusing on the CTA ‘Excellence Programme’ for aspiring female professionals.
