Latest stats in our industry

I've just received the latest statistics within our industry as released by the Department for Transport and the Driving & Vehicle Standards Agency.

Clearly, this is not essential knowledge for driving instructors, but some do like to keep abreast of what is going on in the industry.

Most of the following relates to April - June 2017 (the very latest available data as of today).

The theory test pass rate for Learners is 49% and the practical is 47%.  That 47% by the way represents 430,000 practical tests taken over this quarter.  The "first time" pass rate of that test for 17 year olds is 55%.

Let's look at some driving instructor data:

There are 39,373 ADI's (Approved Driving Instructors) on the register.  This is 1% down from the same time last year and no less than 15% down from June 2012.  Having said that though, if you are interested in trends, there is an upward trend of the taking of all 3 qualifying tests since the low of 2013.

For June 2017 the qualifying test pass rates are as follows:

Part 1 (theory) 53%
Part 2 (driving) 58%
Part 3 (instructional) 35%

That figure of 39.373 ADI's on the register is the lowest number for many years and whilst that might be concerning for some of you reading this, the actual numbers of applications registering with the DVSA is very healthy at about 750 new applications per month.

Some more general points from me:

By far the more pertinent statistic (at least from my point of view as a trainer) is the conversion rate of trainees to qualified ADI's.  Bear in mind that it is a monthly rolling figure because there is naturally a delay between people applying to qualifying, but it comes out at approximately 20%.  So whilst that is suggesting that only 1 in 5 people who register to come in to the industry actually make it to qualification, as I have always said to anyone who expresses an interest in a new career as a driving instructor, it is imperative that you find a trainer who is able to adapt the training to your own particular needs.  

As reported here in this blog back in April this year, the changes to the Part 3 test, away from a "fault based" assessment over to a competency based one was always intended by the DVSA to improve this "completion rate %".  Whilst the start date of the new assessment appears to be slipping from the originally stated 2/10/2017 I am very much in agreement that this intention to seek how a PDI teaches rather than what they teach is positive.  This is fundamentally why here at BIG TOM we have a foundation block entitled "Pedagogy" because it addresses HOW instructors adapt a lesson to ensure it is meaningful to their pupils.

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