ADI Training
Phil Hirst Instructor Training - providing development training (CPD) for ADIs
Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
Obtaining the green badge is quite an achievement. Cramming for the theory test (Part 1), raising your driving standards (Part 2) and lastly, proving that you can teach and control your student driver under the pressure of a watching examiner (Part 3), is behind you. You can “rest on your laurels” and look forward to a long, untroubled career of eager pupils wanting your teaching services. Or can you?
In reality, you’ve climbed on to the first rung of the driving instructor ladder. Most newly-qualified ADIs realise there is still a lot to learn. Gaining experience will happen naturally of course but, you are out there on your own with only your student drivers’ occasional feedback to gauge whether you are doing a good job.
A high first-time pass rate is a fair measure of your success but how are those all-important teaching skills developing?
You will have another Standards Check within the first 12 months of qualifying as an ADI. Are you preparing for it?
Standards Check Preparation
The Standards Check, carried out by DVSA examiners once every few years, is a fair assessment model to help ADIs reflect on their everyday teaching practice. The one-hour check allows ADIs to demonstrate their teaching skills whilst carrying out a “normal” driving lesson with a pupil and an examiner in attendance.
However, because ADIs are assessed so rarely there is nothing “normal” about it. Both ADI and pupil are likely to be nervous about the process which can lead to a driving lesson far removed from what could be considered normal.
Prior preparation and planning, prevents poor performance (the 6 “Ps”). A bit of guidance with who to take, what to do and where to go on the big day can help settle nerves.
My Standards Check training page outlines how I help ADIs prepare for their periodic assessment of their teaching ability, known as the Standards Check.
Train the Trainer
The last few years has seen an increase in the number of people wanting to learn to drive and pass their test. Instructors have rarely had it so good and yet the boom in new pupils has led to unexpected problems.
It is not good business when you put pupils on a waiting list or refer them on to your competitors. Are you missing an opportunity here? Could you be growing your driving school so that you don’t have to say no to a new client ever again?
Recruiting existing ADIs in the current climate, when they are busy, is unlikely. What about training your own from scratch? Once qualified, they are likely to be loyal to you because trust has been built over a number of months whilst they trained with you.
For those with the ambition and drive to grow their business, the Train the Trainer page explains how to access the training and resources needed to expand your driving school to build a profitable and sustainable business.