New Part 3 Assessment

Tom Ingram (Owner of BIG TOM Driving School) discusses the recent announcement from the DVSA of a change to the assessment process of the third test of PDI’s.

When PDI’s train to become driving instructors they qualify by passing 3 assessments from the DVSA.  The first is a test of their theory knowledge, the second relating to their driving ability, and the third their ability to instruct.

Historically this third test referred in the industry as “Part 3”, has been conducted in a role play scenario where the examiner acts the part of 2 distinctly different pupils with differing needs.

As of 2/10/2017 that assessment involving the role playing from an examiner is going to be replaced with an actual pupil again with particular needs.  The examiner’s role will only be one of assessment/observation from the back seat of the car.

The DVSA have said this about the change:

 DVSA’s Registrar Mark Magee said: “The industry has confirmed to us that the current fault-based ADI Part 3 test, which relies on pre-set tests and role play exercises, is both unrealistic and restrictive. It doesn’t give trainee instructors enough opportunity to demonstrate the full range of skills needed when qualified.

“The changes will now mean new ADIs will be better prepared to deliver effective training from day one of qualifying and won’t need to learn different teaching methods ahead of their standards check. It will also enable the test to be delivered at a greater number of test centres and local to where training has taken place.

“However, it is also important to reassure individuals that consideration will be given to PDIs currently part way through the qualifying process. Also, DVSA ADI examiners will receive training to deliver the new ADI Part 3, and DVSA ORDIT inspectors will be updated on the inspection requirements.”

The significance of this change is not to be under-estimated.  It has long been the view of the author that the fault-based assessment with a roleplaying examiner is not only extremely difficult for examiners to perform accurately and realistically, but their ability to accurately assess the actions of the PDI varied enormously.  But more than that, the nature of the assessment resulted in a whole bunch of trainers who specialized in teaching PDI’s coping mechanisms to CONTROL the roleplaying examiner, and these coping mechanisms were completely unrealistic and of little value when handling actual pupils.  The consequence of this fact meant that an entire industry was formed in formats of classroom sessions, 1:1 in-car training, books, DVD’s, webinars and this was formed solely on the basis of “arming” a PDI how to effectively manage a roleplaying examiner, as opposed to training them within the workings of the DVSA Driving Standard of HOW TO TRAIN PUPILS.

If this were all not bad enough, one of the other consequences of the assessment was that it was centred around assessing the ability of the PDI to manage the introduction of deliberate driving faults introduced by the examiner.  As a consequence of this, it was very negatively biased in nature because it became a “game” about spotting and handling faults.  PDI's became conditioned to observe pupils like hawks just waiting for the next driving fault to arise to then be pounced upon.  As a rule, pupils don't much appreciate repeatedly being told how bad they are at driving; whilst that might be a surprise to some parents, it really should not be to any aspiring driving instructor.  Readers of this blog will be able to see plenty of evidence where good instructors do not overly concern themselves unnecessarily with random driving errors from pupils, instead they focus their attentions on the thoughts of the pupil, and creating an effective learning environment.  In fact, the structure of this blog for PDI’s individually tags each blog with the most relevant of the 17 listed criteria of the “Standards Check” – the assessment that is carried out post-qualification that the new “Part 3” is also being based on.

This is a very welcome change.  It will instantly render valueless trainers who solely coached PDI’s to pass Part 3 tests.  Now, PDI’s will be able to seek the advice and guidance of trainers who have kept in touch with the reality of adding value to paying pupils.  This is a point that has been seriously omitted from PDI training for far too long, and in all likelihood has only but contributed to the declining ADI register over the years.  The reason why there is such disparity between the fees of ADI’s is precisely due to the market value of the contribution they provide to pupils.  Putting it crudely, if an ADI does not provide great value to pupils, this is reflected in what pupils will be prepared to pay those ADI’s.  These ADI’s soon recognize that they cannot demand a fee that makes it worth their while to be in the industry, and they are added to the ever increasing statistic of failures as mentioned in my ebook.

The sooner PDI’s and ADI’s start working to the DVSA Driving Standard as opposed to training to pass tests the better for the industry as a whole.  But more to the point, this change by the DVSA will single handedly make redundant all the trainers in the industry who have sat very comfortably for a very long time gaining financial gain by providing training to PDI's that helps them very little to become effective ADI's - and THAT can only be good for this industry.

Tom Ingram provides PAYG training for trainee driving instructors 0775 607 1464