Excelling in Management Roles through Continuing Education with Joel Read
WORDS BY ANBY ALCOMENDAS
When you ’ re at a point in your career where the next logical step is to pursue a leadership role , what would you do ? For Joel Read , Acting Head of Fleet & Protective Equipment at the Country Fire Authority ( CFA ), preparation through education is key and so he decided to take the Diploma of Leadership & Management Course .
AfMA has had the wonderful chance to catch up with Joel about his experiences before , during , and after joining the program .
Joel ’ s background is in Mechanical Engineering for which he has a degree . He started his career as a design engineer in the automotive industry until he found himself working for the CFA .
“ I ’ ve always been interested in specialist vehicles and got a great opportunity to work for the CFA in the design , construction and commissioning of firefighting vehicles ,”
“ I ’ ve managed many different vehicle builds from smaller car , licenced emergency response vehicles , specialist tracked vehicles for Victoria ’ s alpine resorts , and to aerial firefighting vehicles that [ respond ] to elevated rescue and suppression risk .”
“ I have many career highlights , all of which [ have ] improved firefighter safety and ease of operation . It ’ s very easy to overcomplicate a design feature , so if you can achieve intuitive operation of a system that can ’ t be mistaken by the end operator , this gives great job satisfaction .“
As to what led him to taking the Diploma , Joel
18 ISSUE 38 DECEMBER 2022 / WWW . AFMA . ORG . AU