Online Training – Selling PDIs Short

Case Study – Patrick

Patrick (not his real name) asked if he could work on a trainee licence with our driving school. He’d been recommended to us by a family friend. At our first meeting I warmed to him and knew instantly that he had all the personality traits you’d hope for in a driving instructor – and then he said how he’d been trained!

He’d passed parts one and two first time with a national school but realised the part three test was a different beast. He didn’t feel ready to teach students on a trainee licence either, even though he’d completed the minimum requirements in terms of training – forty hours, of which 25% minimum, must be in a vehicle.

Patrick’s part 3 training had comprised of twenty-two hours online (with many other PDIs) and eighteen hours in-car on a 2:1 basis (trainee/trainer). Most of his nine hours teaching practice in the instructor seat had been discussion-based or demonstrations by his trainer; very little movement of the vehicle or teaching in role play scenarios.

Talking a student through moving off, stopping and turning corners at junctions proved difficult for him. Using open Q&A to prompt a student to think and act was virtually non-existent. So, what was I to do – take him on as a PDI, provide the training that he clearly needed and wanted whilst charging him for my time, money he hadn’t originally envisaged having to spend?
We agreed on a short package of training to introduce the skills he lacked before introducing him to some of the subjects he would have to teach.

Patrick is now working on a trainee licence and has his first attempt at part three coming soon. He has completed his extra 20 hours training, all of which were in-car.

The Online ‘Virus’

The proliferation of online courses came out of the Covid lockdowns. PDIs were suddenly without any support mid-course and online courses sprang up to fill the void. One ‘virus’ (online courses) followed another (Covid).

Instructor training organisations refined their online courses and realised that they would save on training delivery costs (trainer’s pay, fuel etc) by reducing in-car hours. This led to the price of ADI courses reducing as national companies competed on price alone, some offering ‘free’ training.

Of course, there’s always a catch. No training is truly ‘free’. PDIs are usually signing a long contract tieing them into working for the training company. Imagine the real cost when paying £250-300 per week over a long period of time and no guarantee of qualifying either!

‘Hope’ This Industry is Built on It

Training companies hope that enough PDIs will make it on to a trainee licence to start paying back into their coffers and turn a potential loss into a profit. If they qualify, that’s fine, but it’s not essential as the money comes from trainee licence holders over a six-to-eighteen-month period.

To mitigate against losses, part one is done largely online (very little study, just practising questions and hazard perception clips). Overheads are low.

Part two must be done in-car (though VCR courses are even replacing this) but often 2:1 and not in the area where the test will be taken. Again, costs are being pared back.

It’s when we arrive at part three that PDIs are increasingly living on hope:

• Hope that they have had enough effective training to be able to scrape 31/51 on at least one of their three attempts.
• Hope that they will find an experienced, local ADI trainer to fill in the gaps in their knowledge, skills and understanding denied them by their original company because they were cutting costs.
• Hope that they’ll have the finance, family support and determination to see it through to the bitter end.

Summary

There are a multitude of unsatisfactory issues in the world of ADI training. Online courses, as a cheap substitute for essential in-car instructor development, is the latest. The only place to learn the skills of a competent driving instructor is in a moving vehicle, NOT, attending online discussions.

The head of training of one of the national companies said to me that he’d fought to stop online courses replacing real training, but he’d lost the battle.

Is there any wonder that the pass rate for part 3 tests remains around one in three? New entrants into this industry deserve better.
Phil Hirst is an ORDIT ADI Trainer with 30 years’ experience. He has been on the ORDIT Register since its inception in 1998.