Since the age of 15, Georgina Hursey has enjoyed the buzz of the hairdressing salon, becoming a perfectionist at her trade and sharing her passion and skill with peers. However, after 30 years Georgina was looking for a fresh challenge and dropped the clippers to embark on a new career in transport after discovering a trainee bus driver program.
It’s not the first time she has wanted to get behind the wheel of a bus. Some of Georgina’s fondest early memories were times spent riding the bus with her late father.
“My father was a bus driver and when I was little, he would take me out on the road and I always wanted to try driving the bus, but I was too small,” she says.
Years passed and Georgina pursued her career in the salon, but the dream had always been at the back of her mind.
Seeing SkyBus’s Women Up Front program reignited her old passion, making the first step down a new path a ‘no-brainer’.
“I’ve always dealt with people and loved customer service, so I wanted a job where I could interact with people,” she says.
“When I saw the advertisement [for Women Up Front], I knew instantly this is what I wanted to do.”
Swapping the salon for the driver’s seat was simple, with Georgina’s enthusiasm for people and customers now motivating her new journey.
“I want people to know that they’re going to catch the SkyBus and have a driver like me,” she says.
“Then they’ll say, ‘I won’t get on my rideshare app, I’m going to get on SkyBus!’”
Georgina is one of 14 women who have joined SkyBus since the company launched Women Up Front in 2023.
The program is inspiring a new cohort of people to explore careers in transport in a supportive environment and to learn and build confidence as a qualified bus driver.
Georgina is excited to be the face of a new generation of bus drivers, encouraging other women to get behind the wheel.
“Even though you might not seem like the typical bus driver, you can definitely do it! I’d encourage other women to do what I’m doing,” she says.
The trainee bus driver program is part of Kinetic’s strategy to target gender balance across the organisation by 2030.
To learn more, visit wearekinetic.com/sustainability/women-up-front.
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