A race to the bottom

It would appear that the DVSA are placing increasing importance on their Standards Check grading that they periodically give to driving instructors; with talk now of it becoming compulsory for ADI’s to publicise their grading.  It begs the question why the DVSA doesn’t just automatically publicise the grades taking any “option” out of the driving instructor’s hands.

Any aspiring driving instructors might well be wondering what all the fuss is about – let me explain.

The DVSA choose to assess the competence of a driving instructor by having an examiner observe a real driving lesson from the back seat of the driving school car.  One might wonder what is possibly wrong with that?  Well, in much the same way that learner drivers can be “coached” to pass driving tests, equally, driving instructors can be “coached” to pass Standards Check assessments.  Shock, horror! Surely I didn’t just say that?  How dare I suggest such a thing?!  People get a bit confused by this situation because some perceive training that is specifically aimed at “Standards Check” assessments as being “CPD”.  But be under no illusions, if a driving instructor is receiving short, sharp, intensive “Standards Check” training they are being “coached” to pass the Standards Check with flying colours.  The problem with this approach to the Standards Check assessment is how ‘long term’ the new learning will be on the driving instructor.  The analogy I would draw for you would be to consider how long term the effects are on a learner driver by telling them to check a mirror every 8 seconds.  In doing so, the pupil complies and passes the driving test, but do you think for one moment that the pupil will continue checking the mirror every 8 seconds after passing the driving test?  This low grade type of driver training is going on in our industry right now.

So what I am really questioning is the integrity and value of the Standards Check.  The DVSA are on the brink here of making the fundamental mistake the school education industry has made in how OFSTED assesses schools.  So much emphasis is placed on the perceived value of exam grades, that the whole point of effective, meaningful education for ALL students is being lost. 

Driving instructors should be assessed by monitoring what ACTUAL CPD they do.  Are they attending driving association conferences where the DVSA attend?  Are they purchasing and passing training courses that has meaningful “teaching” qualifications attached to it?  It is my contention that the worthiness of a driving instructor is directly linked to their ability to facilitate effective learning.  What we need the DVSA to do is to follow through with the goals of the driving standards that they have provided, and assess driving instructors in their ability to deliver high quality driving training aligned to those driving standards.  The ability of a driving instructor to facilitate  effective learning is measurable by how well the driving instructor is trained.  

What we desperately need is our industry to stop providing “emergency first aid” training in the form of temporarily equipping driving instructors to pass the Standards Check.  Instead the DVSA should be requiring to see evidence of any meaningful CPD the driving instructor is participating in.      

Tom Ingram provides PAYG driving training to trainee driving instructors from £20/hr (0775 607 1464)   http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

Understanding "the moment"

This blog is in the form of a video just to provide a different format for followers - if it proves popular then I will use it more.  Do let me know!

Interested in learning more?  Here is a link to my ebook

Tom Ingram provides payg driving training for trainee driving instructors Call: 0775 607 1464   http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

Learning Ownership

One of the shortcomings of working with a pupil within a learning environment that is based around them listening to information only is that it deprives them of the opportunity to own how they learn.  Our Driving Standard is very clear on this point:

".....learners who:

are not engaged by the training
just receive information

are less well equipped to deal with the wide range of challenges they will meet, when they drive independently, than those who are supported to be active learners."

So a professional driving instructor will strive to promote learning by having a pupil actively contributing to the process.   Take the responsibility for maintaining safety as one example.  A pupil needs to be given the opportunity to realise the importance of assessing risk.  Sometimes driving instructors get all consumed in the dealing with driving errors that crop up instead of focussing on the important stuff.  Safety critical incidents must not, ever be ignored.  It sends entirely the wrong message to a pupil if an incident crops up that affected safety and is NOT discussed.  Without thinking we have no learning, and for some pupils, without talking, we have no thinking.  So it is essential that risk is discussed BEFORE specific training takes place, so that if an incident does crop up that affected safety, then between instructor and pupil, the process of risk assessment that was undertaken can be reviewed.  There is no shame in that by the way.  Far from it.  It is logical, justifiable and an effective means of striving for continual improvement.

If you are finding yourself getting frustrated or angry with the outcomes of the training session, then the development need sits firmly with YOU not your pupil.  Raising your voice and venting your anger on your pupil is unprofessional and completely misguided.  Our pupils do not enter our driving school cars with any deliberate intentions of creating safety critical incidents - they simply need to have the skill of risk assessment developed so that when you leave the passenger seat after they pass the test, they can continue to do that risk assessment.

When you are both considering what to work on, allow your pupil the time to actually imagine how this is going to proceed.  Ask them to consider if there are any risks that they can think of in doing what you are both planning on doing.  They need to realise that there are choices about how they learn.  They can control outcomes by giving some thought to where to train, how long, how difficult to make it.  But importantly, having made those decisions, if it turns out that they had made an error on how they thought the session would go (in terms of learning outcomes or safety implications) then that is still very worthwhile to review the process taken in risk assessing.  It is a good sign when a pupil starts to independently recognise the value in reviewing outcomes, but they do need a hand in developing that skill.

Whilst I am making reference there to identifying the responsibility to maintain safety while training, we should not forget the benefit to the learning outcomes of the pupil, by having an engaged pupil.  When pupils can sense that they have the freedom to control learning outcomes it boosts satisfaction levels, learning, motivation and self-worth.  Pupils need to feel they are being fulfilled in the process of learning and driving instructors are no different.  It is vitally important as a newly qualified driving instructor that you can sense the value you are providing - and the DVSA tell us all that the value comes in the development of active learners, not 'compliant' learners.   

In summary, I wanted to introduce in this blog the concept within the DVSA Driving Standard of how we maximise long term learning by encouraging pupils to actively engage in the process.  Pupils learn by thinking.  The "doing" bit of car control is a given, that is the stuff of the lower two levels on the GDE matrix.  What I am referring to here is how instructors can encourage pupils to start taking on the responsibility for their learning process by equipping them with the skills of identification, assessment, decision making and reflection.  Whilst I have used the example of maintaining safety in this blog, you can apply these key skills to any given situation within the learning environment.  And they are just that.... skills, skills that pupils need to be made aware of, practice and develop.   

So today, give some thought to the "how" of your pupils learning, rather than the "what".  Pupils need to be given the opportunity to review how effective their learning is and where any obstacles may exist.

Tom Ingram provides PAYG training for trainee driving instructors.  http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/ 

Think beyond the passing of tests

The reality of the situation re the quality of driver training currently is that the liability or risk of newly qualified drivers is so great that car insurers are only prepared to make it viable in financial terms to insure a car if the driver agrees to having a black "telematics" box fitted.  That is where we currently find ourselves. 

Quite typically my pupils are telling me that with telematics the quotes they receive for a fairly average second hand car is around £1500, without telematics £2500.   The telematics are in effect behaving as some kind of substitute driving instructor whereby the newly qualified driver continues to sense a monitoring of driving behaviour.  Why is this necessary?  Because bluntly, without it, insurers recognise the increased risk that the new driver presents.

What this should be telling us all as an industry, is that the driving training being provided can best be described as a systemic failure on a cataclysmic magnitude .  Preparing pupils to pass driving tests that then exposes that they are ill-equipped to drive independently post-test is really no reason to celebrate.  If this performance measure were being monitored in the same manner as any other comparable industry regarding the value it provides to the consumer, there would be a national outcry of it being 'not fit for purpose'. 

However, in the interests of balance, it should be said that it is very often our customers desire to look upon driving training as no more than being able to pass the driving test - so the fact that these customers are now having to endure extortionate insurance premiums is for many driving instructors, quite justifiable.  I have just renewed my own driving school car annual insurance for just over £250 the same level it was when I came into the industry in 2008.

If a customer wants to go to test come hell or high water, they will find an instructor that will let them go to test.  This is one of the downfalls of our system; a candidate presenting themselves for a driving test does not require ANY formal authority to go to test from a professional driving instructor, they don't even need to use a driving school car for the purposes of the test.  Our pupils and their parents do not, on the whole, make connections between the quality of driving training and long-term road safety, instead, their minds are centred around the repeated taking of driving tests in order to eventually get a full driving licence. 

And this is equally the case for PDI's who want to qualify as a driving instructor too.  PDI's if left to their own devices will naturally, generally speaking be focussed just on the passing of the 3 DVSA tests; who can blame them?  And yet, look at the fall out rate of driving instructors from the industry.  The DfT statistics that are regularly provided for public viewing show all of us the static numbers on the ADI register DESPITE the monthly addition of newly qualified ADI's.  ADI's are leaving the industry in droves. 

How this level of mass "under-performance" is allowed to continue unchecked is quite unbelievable.

Tom Ingram provides driving training to PDI's on a PAYG basis 0775 607 1464
http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/