Diploma of Automotive Management

The Diploma of Automotive Management is a one-year qualification for people who want to run the business side of a workshop, dealership or automotive service operation. You study how a repair business actually makes money: quoting and costing jobs, managing parts inventory and suppliers, rostering technicians, meeting workplace health and safety obligations, and keeping customers coming back. Project management sits at the centre of it, because that is how automotive managers plan a job from booking to handover, control the budget, and keep the workshop moving when something goes wrong.

How the course is structured

Australian diplomas are made up of units of competency, each carrying credit points, and are usually delivered over two or three study periods across the year. Assessment is practical rather than exam-heavy. You might cost a repair order, build a roster for a small workshop, prepare a quote for a fleet maintenance contract, or work through a simulated customer complaint and document how you resolved it. Some providers include a work placement or structured workplace learning in a workshop or dealership, which is where most students first see how a service department is really run.

What you learn

By the end you should be able to read a profit and loss statement for a workshop, price labour and parts so the job is profitable, manage a stock system, supervise a small team, and apply Australian workplace law and safety requirements. You also learn to use the software that automotive businesses run on, from job costing systems to parts catalogues. The point is not to turn you into a mechanic. It is to give you the management skills that sit around the technical work.

Who it suits

This diploma suits people already working in the automotive trade who want to move into a supervisor or service manager role, and people with business or retail experience who want to specialise in the automotive sector. If you are an international student, the Student visa lets you work up to 48 hours per fortnight while you study, and after you finish you may be able to apply for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream, depending on your circumstances. English requirements for international applicants are set out on the official page, and the Department of Home Affairs sets a separate English threshold for the visa itself. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 106365A. Check the official page for current details before you apply.

• Automotive service manager or workshop manager
• Service advisor or customer service manager in a dealership
• Parts and inventory manager
• Fleet maintenance coordinator
• Workshop supervisor in a repair or tyre business
• Small business owner or operator in the automotive sector

These roles sit across dealerships, independent repair workshops, fleet operators, mining and transport companies, and automotive retail chains around Australia.