An update from our Professional Development Director Steve Griffiths.
At Women in Transport, we believe that every woman in our sector deserves the opportunity to thrive, lead, and shape the future of transport.
For more than a decade, we’ve been building a development ecosystem that supports women at every stage of their career journey. With Advance providing structured mentoring and Lead equipping women with the strategic skills to step into leadership, the introduction of our new coaching programme, Grow, completes a powerful three-spoke model designed to nurture confidence, capability, and progression.
Accelerate your career.
Grow arrives at a moment of profound change for our industry. Transport is evolving at pace – driven by digitisation, decarbonisation, new mobility models, and shifting workforce expectations. In this environment, professional development must be more than generic training. It must be tailored, contextual, and responsive to the realities of the sector.
Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) highlights that sector-specific learning is increasingly essential in technical, fast-moving environments, where understanding the context is key to unlocking performance and progression (CIPD, 2025).
Grow is built on that principle. It offers women a confidential, supportive space to explore challenges and opportunities with coaches who understand the transport landscape – its operational pressures, cultural dynamics, and the unique experiences of women working within it. This approach reflects insights from the Institute of Coaching, which emphasises that coaching grounded in lived experience is more effective in building confidence, resilience, and behavioural change.
Where Advance helps women broaden their networks, gain perspective, and build aspiration, Grow provides the mechanism to turn insight into action. Coaching supports women in understanding how they think, how they respond, and how they can shift patterns to unlock new possibilities. It is particularly powerful in sectors where women may experience isolation or limited access to informal networks – challenges highlighted in recent workforce development analysis from CILT, which stresses the importance of targeted capability-building in transport and logistics.
Grow also reflects a wider movement across professional development: the democratisation of coaching. Once reserved for senior executives, coaching is increasingly recognised as a strategic tool for emerging leaders, technical specialists, and mid-career professionals.
Research from the CIPD shows that early-career coaching strengthens leadership pipelines and supports long-term retention – a critical need in transport, where skills shortages and demographic shifts are reshaping workforce planning.
By embedding coaching within our development offer, Women in Transport is helping to remove systemic barriers and create a more inclusive, supportive environment for women across the sector. Grow is not simply about individual development – it is about shifting culture. It equips women with the tools to lead authentically, advocate for themselves, and influence change in their organisations and across the wider industry.
Together, Lead, Advance, and Grow form a holistic development wheel:
Advance builds confidence, connection, and aspiration through mentoring.
Grow deepens self-awareness and strengthens capability through coaching.
Lead equips women with the strategic and organisational skills needed to influence and lead.
This three-spoke model is more than a set of programmes – it is a long-term investment in the future of transport. By providing women with tailored, sector-specific development at every stage of their career, we are helping to build a more confident, capable, and diverse workforce. Grow ensures that women are not only prepared for the challenges ahead but are empowered to shape the industry’s future.
At Women in Transport, we are proud to complete this development wheel – and even prouder of the women who will use it to grow, lead, and thrive!