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 rather than spend their days under a bonnet. You study how automotive businesses actually work: managing staff and rosters, costing jobs and quoting, parts and inventory control, customer service and complaint handling, workplace safety, and the compliance and record-keeping that comes with running a registered business in Australia. Some units look at marketing and selling service packages, and at the numbers side, budgets, margins, and reading a profit and loss statement for a workshop.

How the qualification is structured

As a diploma, this sits at Level 5 on the Australian Qualifications Framework, below a bachelor degree, above a certificate IV. It is delivered over one year. Australian diplomas are built from units of study, each carrying credit points, and you normally complete them across semesters or trimesters. Assessment is typically a mix of written tasks, case studies, practical workshop scenarios and a project where you apply management skills to a real or simulated automotive business. Some providers include work-integrated learning, such as a placement or industry project with a dealership or repairer, because that is how the automotive sector trains its supervisors. Confirm the exact unit list, delivery mode and any placement requirement on the official page.

Skills you come away with

You learn to lead a small team, plan and schedule work through a workshop, manage stock and supplier relationships, handle customer disputes, and keep the business compliant with workplace health and safety and fair trading rules. You also pick up the financial literacy to price labour and parts properly and to track whether a job actually made money. Communication matters as much as the technical side, you will be dealing with customers, insurers, suppliers and staff.

Who it suits

This suits people already working in automotive, technicians moving into a supervisor or service advisor role, or someone in a family business who needs the management side formalised. It also works for career changers who want to enter the industry at a management or administrative level. International students should note that a Student visa allows up to 48 hours of work per fortnight while studying, and graduates may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream, subject to the Department of Home Affairs requirements. English proficiency is required, IELTS Academic 6.0–6.5 overall is the common standard for courses at this level, with TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and the institution's own English programmes accepted as equivalents. The Student visa has its own separate English threshold set by the Department of Home Affairs. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 116453G.

• Workshop supervisor or team leader, running day-to-day operations in a repair shop or dealership service department.
• Service advisor, the front-of-house role that quotes jobs, books work and manages customer expectations.
• Parts and inventory manager, ordering, storing and controlling stock for a workshop or parts retailer.
• Automotive service manager, overseeing staff, budgets and performance targets across a site.
• Fleet coordinator, managing maintenance schedules and costs for company or government vehicle fleets.
• Small business owner or operator, running your own mechanical, detailing or mobile service business.

Employers include dealerships, independent repairers, fleet operators, parts wholesalers and retailers, and automotive service chains across Australia.