Stepping into leadership – Scholarship

Stepping into leadership – Scholarship (Total Project $102,420 – SADIF $5,000)

The aim of the project was to provide a scholarship for women in the dairy industry to participate in the Stepping Into Leadership program, where they are supported through training, coaching and mentoring to articulate their career goals and be supported to work towards achieving them.

A woman in the dairy industry was supported by SADIF and completed the Stepping Into Leadership Program in 2025. 

Participating in the Stepping Into Leadership Program extended the scholarship beneficiary’s broader agricultural networks and helped them articulate their leadership and career goals in the dairy industry, along with the professional development undertaken throughout. 

The Stepping Into Leadership Program is one of WoTL’s established programs and the application supported a scholarship position for a women from the SA Dairy Industry to participate in the program. 

In providing a scholarship for the 8-month Stepping Into Leadership program, the SA Dairy Industry Fund supported an industry member to extend their skills, networks, and leadership pipelines, through leadership development, individual coaching, 1:1 mentoring and a series of webinars. 

As an established program WoTL has an established methodology for delivery, key dates and activities include: 

19th Sep 2024 – EOI for 2025 program in take are open 

11th Oct 2024 – EOI close 

Oct – Nov 2024 – Participants are selected 

December 2025 – Introductory webinar for participants 

Feb 2025 – 2 day residential leadership training, including dinner with program sponsors 

Feb – June 2025 – individual coaching for participants 

April 2025 – mentor selection 

March – August 2025 – on-line training 

June 2025 – mentor training workshop 

June 2025 – mentors and leaders workshop 

June – September 2025 individual mentoring for participants 

September 2025 – final workshop and graduation, graduates are invited to join alumni 

Scholarship providers and sponsors of the program were invited to meet with program participants at a dinner during the Residential Leadership Training and at the graduation event. These are key network building opportunities for participants. 

The benefit to the SA Dairy Industry was that a woman will be more capable to contribute to the dairy industry and likely to continue their career in the industry. 

For the participant in the Stepping Into Leadership Program the industry benefits will be through them being supported through training, coaching and mentoring to develop a career and leadership plan and then assisted in the initial stages of implementation. This will lead to this person being more activity involved in the industry in her chosen field. 

Past participants of the Stepping Into Leadership Program from the dairy industry have included Michele Hamilton and Shannon Pearce. Both have attributed their increased involved in their respective businesses and the industry to support received whilst involved in the Stepping Into Leadership Program and continuing support of the wider WoTL network after completing the program. 

The immediate measure of success of the project is participants active participation in the Stepping Into Leadership Program leading to an increased confidence, capability and capacity of the individuals. This was measured at the completion of the program using post event tools to capture qualitative and quantitative data. Evaluation questions included to level 5 (KASA Change – Knowledge, attitude, skills, aspirations) in Bennett’s Hierarchy. 

The longer-term measure of success is that the scholarship assisted a woman from the dairy industry to participate in the program and in-turn they will use their new skills and networks to contribute to the growth and success of the SA Dairy industry. 

When Stepping Into Leadership participants join the alumni, WoTL has a system in place to capture information on their career progression as a way of measuring the longer-term success / impact of the program. 

The Stepping Into Leadership Program is a well-established event that fills a place in the market that no other organisation is offering. 

The program is innovative in its design and content, which is reviewed every year to ensure it remains at the cutting edge and a leader in the marketplace. 

There is no other leadership program in South Australia that offers the level of individual leadership support as participants receive in the Stepping Into Leadership Program or that is delivered by facilitators and coaches that have an in-depth understanding of the nuances of the agricultural sector. Mentors are also carefully selected to match the individual requirements of the participants. These innovative and thorough approaches are commented on by the participants each year. 

Value for money is achieved by having efficiencies in systems that have been developed over years of the program being delivered. 

There is also considerable in-kind contribution from the volunteer program mentors, conservatively estimated at $43,170 for Stepping Into Leadership. 

Stepping Into Leadership participants are also required to pay a participant fee, travel and accommodation costs as a way of demonstrating their full commitment to the program. 

Having a number of funding partners allows all partners to receive value for money on their investment into the program. 

WoTL has completed the delivery of the 2025 Stepping Into Leadership Program. I would like to thank the SADIF for supporting the program and to assure the Board that the $5,000 was expended in accordance with the terms and conditions of the granting process.

All funds have been expended on program operational costs which included venue hire, printing and facilitation fees.