There are a variety of ways of choosing how to become a driving instructor and it is very understandable why you might find the prospect of a new career daunting. One very important aspect in choosing who to train with is having a learning environment that suits your needs and does not add any pressure to the process. Look here at the words here from Mike who trained with BIG TOM and paid less than a £1000 to start a new career as a qualified driving instructor.
"Thanks to Big Tom driving school for guiding me through my
ADI training.
The training was appropriate and flexible.
Tom recognised my:
·Needs – Limited funding and limited time- He responded with absolute flexibility and
support by tailoring the training to fit in with me and my relative
inflexibility. He delivered balanced shortened sessions alongside longer
sessions.
·Abilities – I have a strong driving back
ground- He identified my strengths and
weaknesses and delivered training accurately at my level without being
patronising and clearly supported his observations, both developmental and
positive, with unambiguous evidence.
·Training experience – He identified where my
previous experience aligned with the driving environment and where it didn’t,
and tailored the training to the latter areas. As a role player he always
managed to target his responses and examples to emphasise a point in an
appropriate and often humorous way.
I completed the three exams successfully in a 10 month time
frame which I am extremely happy with, given my time and funding limitations,
this was a really positive outcome. Tom was not pushy but properly supportive
as we moved away from the industry norm in terms of training delivery. He
managed the process accurately and diplomatically. Furthermore, every session
was enjoyable, which I was not expecting.
I researched other ADI training providers and found them to
be; expensive, inflexible and impersonal and through them I would not have been
able to pursue this.
I cannot recommend Big Tom Driving School highly enough."
Mike Jones from
Sleaford (Qualified as an ADI December 2016)
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Hello, I want to provide a brief video for trainee driving
instructors as well as already established driving instructors.It is this kind of content that you are about
to receive here that you can reasonably expect to receive on your BIG TOM
driving instructor training.It’s the
sort of stuff that differentiates you from a mediocre driving instructor and a
good driving instructor.The title of
this one is Providing a Hare’s Corner for our Pupils.I’ve come to a very rural location you might
even hear some cows any time.I’m right
near some farm land.And “hare’s corner”,
I’ll read it: “Rural tradition of leaving a field corner uncut for animals to
escape in to; a place of refuge or escape”.
That would be a very good concept to keep in mind when you
are training with your pupils.Because
the skills that you are encouraging them to develop are ones that take some
inner thought, we are not talking about a light switch here where one minute
they are not doing certain skills and the next minute they are, these are
skills that need to develop and come from within, and ruminate.These things have to develop over time and be
given space in which to, you are raising awareness and you are raising skills
of self-evaluation.This is not
something that just happens.
I can give an example of the day before yesterday with a
pupil of mine where we were dealing with a ‘safety critical incident’ involving
a national speed limit single carriageway road, and somebody did what was a
very dodgy overtake.And this actually
came into the conversation.
It was clear for me to see that my pupil was experiencing a
difficult time for her to gather her thought processes in a coherent way about
that safety critical incident.And that
is absolutely fine, it really is fine, it is necessary to give them that space,
that place to go to, to allow them to feel….. you got to remember what it feels
like when you are learning, those inner feelings that you get when the learning
curve or progress is not linear, that is not a given.It is going to ebb and flow.As a learner, when you are in a moment where
it is not great, then that feeling you get, you need to be feeling that you are
in a safe environment and you are not being in any way attacked, or criticised,
or judged by your inadequacies.And this
is exactly what I’m talking about, with this here.We need to bear this in mind, we really do.
I recall, about 20 years ago, working for an electronic
company, and going to a convention for ESD (electro-static discharge) where
devices can be damaged if you don’t handle them correctly.Myself and 2 colleagues went to this
conference and I was heading this up.Quite by chance, we were in a massive room, in a meeting with lots of
people there; there must have been 30 or 40 people around this table.Quite by chance, what was offered to me was
quite surprising, completely took me off my feet, very flattering but never the
less, I really wasn’t expecting it.A
person came to my aid, how I would like to thank that person.That person provided a ‘hare’s corner’ in that
moment of time so although I’m talking in a training environment this really
does crop up at any time when we are in dialogue with other people.It’s a really massive point.
It is a difference between a driving instructor who is going
through the motions, an average driving instructor and someone who is taking
trouble to take care of their pupils in a learning environment.In an effective, safe learning environment.
With the franchisees in the BIG TOM franchise, they are
expected to become a member of one of the 3 main driving instructor associations.In the past I have been a member of all 3 of
the major ones in the UK.The DIA has
got a conference coming up on the 17/11/2017 at Wyboston Lakes Bedfordshire.And it is good, I have been before and it is
good.I think the DIA is good, out of the
3 of them, they are the ones that shine.They do a magazine each month and on page 26 of this months magazine
there is an article on websites.7 tips
for driving school websites, and it is good.Most of the stuff they do is good.Websites are incredibly important; they come under the Business Support
Foundation Block in the BIG TOM driving instructor training.It is incredibly important.There is much more to it than they can give
here, it is just that it is such an important subject, there is a lot lot more
to websites, but it is a good starting point.And this is the kind of thing that they do well, they are bringing up
things that are important to look out for.Under the business support foundation block with BIG TOM we really go to
town with this as it is so important.
www.drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk Hello I want to do a video that is aimed for trainee driving instructors as well as already established driving instructors. It is demonstrating how BIG TOM can assist you in the driving instructor foundation blocks in making sure you hit the target in a training environment. It is do with a few incidents that happened yesterday. I don't know which location you are from but we had an appalling day yesterday here in terms of road safety, the A1 in Grantham and other places like the A15 and it all the time it focusses the mind on the point of this driving instructor training. A few things came into my radar and I just want to go over them with you. The message is really clear and it is to do with the background actually; you don't hit the target by accident. If you are not aiming for a particular target generally speaking you just don't achieve it. That point is very relevant in a training environment as well. A lass who is about 23 yrs old, on Twitter, she wrote on a tweet yesterday "Your driving instructor does not teach you to drive, they teach you to pass your test. Fact". It's on my twitter feed if you want to have a look at it, Shelby it was. I had a short dialogue with her, thanked her for even... imagine what has to happen for someone to go through the process of learning to drive, pass the driving test and still take the trouble to go on their twitter and come out with that tweet. Imagine how she must be feeling. That cropped up and I was attempting to understand what had happened for her to be saying that, and you can see it, just go on Twitter and tap in @ShelbySimpsonxx and you'll see it, or just go on to my Twitter feed and you will see it there as well. It was all to do with her driving instructor not allowing her to use her own car, the way that she was taught manoeuvres, it's quite an interesting point. It kind of reminds of what I have recently just read by Dr Tim O'Brien in his book "Inner Story". He makes the point "A teacher who believes that teaching is solely about being in front of the learners can fall swiftly into the trap of being too didactic". I think we can very much fall into that trap as a driving instructor if we are not aiming to hit a target we could very easily fall into that trap whereby we are doing is really not very effective for our customers, the learners; as Shelby has demonstrated in her tweet. Also yesterday in the news, you may have seen it, one of the heads in OFSTED Amanda Spielman also made reference to the fact that teaching to tests in the educational world, in schools, teaching to tests gives hollow understanding. A saw that, and that was an interesting article in itself. It once again, brings in this point of how we can go through this process of teaching people in a learning environment but when they come out the other end, what is the end product if you like, what is the worth of what has been done. It always reminds me of quite a few years ago now on The Apprentice where one of Alan Sugars contestants was doing a market stall in London and a customer gave her £20 and she couldn't work out the change. She had qualifications coming out of her ears, degrees, an entrepreneur, but give change of a £20 note? No, couldn't do it. And it is that, that's the bit that is lacking, that's the bit where you could spend a lot of time, you could spend a year learning something, yet at the end of that year, if you either don't get what you aimed to get, maybe a certificate, or you are not able to apply to what you have been taught in a meaningful way, that brings success then really, we are kind of missing the point. Now yesterday, also, I was having a chat with someone who I asked "What do you do?" and she replied "Social media". Now that doesn't really mean anything does it. The vast majority of the British population "do" social media. It doesn't actually mean anything does it. "How are you assisting small businesses, what value are providing to owners of small businesses in this area of social media?". We had a conversation of about 10-15 minutes, and I came out of that time and quite frankly I was just thinking to myself what a waste of 10 minutes of my life that was, because the value, the service that was being offered was far too vague, generic, there was just nothing there that I could think to myself, yes that's really going to be good for my business. There was no value added whatsoever. And in our world of driving training, we have to be very careful about who we are talking to, our pupils, and pitching things at the right levels. Because the desire here is for our pupil to develop understanding and skills that actually mean something to them. It has to actually physically and mentally mean something to our pupil because as Shelby says on her tweet, if we just say things like "So when you are approaching this roundabout then Ian, pay attention to your speed and gears then, attention to your speed and gears. Now Ian might hear that and think in his head "I've not got a clue what he's saying... speed and gears..... what's he mean? I don't even know what he means?" It's completely meaningless. Or it might be something like "So what you will need to do, when you approach these junctions then is, you need to slow down, and get it in gear first before you get to the turning." What does that really actually mean for a pupil? It's completely and utterly meaningless. "Slow down", from what to what? When do all of this, how do I do it. It actually doesn't mean anything and so therefore you are saying things and doing things, and your customer is paying you for that time but it is actually not of any value. Because what it's not doing is tapping into not just a coping mechanism but the thoughts and feelings of the actual pupil about what they need to be doing in any given situations that actually means something to them instead. Forget about your phrase about speed and gears. We do come out with some utter rubbish as driving instructors. And it's like what Dr Tim O'Brien is saying, make sure that what you are doing is pitched perfectly for your pupil so that there is an understanding in your pupil's mind about the road safety concept. This is a very broad point, nevertheless it's very important because if you are thinking to yourself that you can just say things to Freda, and then John, then Mary and I'll be saying the same thing to Mary and later on I've got Steve, and yes, Steve can have more of the same. You are coming out with the same stuff for every single pupil. Some pupils will kind of relate to what you are saying and some pupils will have no idea what you are referring to. So you are not hitting the target, because what you are doing is treating each pupil exactly the same as if they are somehow tuned into your personal thought processes and as a consequence of treating them all the same, it is going to be hit and miss about how effective your driving training actually is for your pupil. The consequence of that is that: a) it doesn't make for happy pupils, pupils come out of the car and thinking "Do you know he kept on banging on to me about speed and gears, I don't know what he is talking about". They go home to their friends and family and relay the same frustrations. They may not come back to you. b) if you're not actually providing something that resonates with them, it doesn't stay with them, it just really really doesn't. They may comply with what you are saying in the short term, because you are saying to them that is going to pass the test, so therefore they do. Do look at this tweet that Shelby has put up yesterday, because she says this. She says: "Well it's all about the reference points in her car, she wanted me to do it in her car because that was what I was going to test in". And so because she does her test in that car, she passes her test and then poor Shelby can't do whatever parking manoeuvres she was referring to. She just doesn't know how to. We've got to develop in our pupils the skill of learning how to learn so that it is continuous. They continue to build layers of experience and learning and they are able to adapt and recognise for themselves where their strengths and weaknesses are and so consequently they can continue to improve. So these few things that happened yesterday all have a theme. This is the key value of the BIG TOM driving instructor training, the foundation blocks. The training that you are going to be receiving is very aligned to your needs, and it is very practical. If you are coming out the other end of it and you are unsure as to the point of the webinar, then that is no good. I'm not doing my job if I'm not relaying to PDI's and trainee driving instructors the key essential points about making sure that learning is relevant. Learning does have to be relevant for it to be meaningful and long lasting. It sounds incredibly simple doesn't it but you might be quite surprised about how lacking this point is in the driving training industry and of course the consequences when this goes wrong out on the roads there is not good. Hope this helps.
As the owner of a driving school for near on 10 years, it is not lost on me that in order to survive in business, you do need to be brave. But what you do not need to do is be reckless. The reason why the strap line of my driving instructor training school is "Less risk, more control" is because what is being offered here is a means by which a trainee driving instructor can receive the required training to qualify without taking unnecessary risk. In my experience one of the top concerns of people when they consider a career move of being a self-employed driving instructor is the risk associated with still being able to pay the bills. One of the attractions of the BIG TOM franchise is the fact that franchisees are paid by customers in advance (21 days) and there are no cancellations. The only way my business has been able to develop those kinds of terms is by consistently demonstrating a commitment to customers that they are choosing a safe, reliable training provider when they choose BIG TOM. If you feel the need to gain trust in the BIG TOM brand, then just take a look at these customer reviews. Customers don't make comments about a business like those listed without good cause. What this means for you is that you can consider coming into a franchise that knows the importance of building effective working relationships. Honesty, integrity, reliability - core values of how BIG TOM does business with our suppliers, our customers, and our franchisees. Drop Tara your details here and she will be in touch with you soon without any obligation.
The very latest ins0101 document from the DfT/DVSA gives us some fresh data leading up to and including June 2017. This gives some indication of the state of driving instructor training in the UK. In the last 5 years 8223 people have registered to be an ADI (in other words qualified). However, for reasons of resigning, or being removed or just allowing their green badge to lapse, 20,449 ADI's left the register over the same period. The net loss as per the register total is 5196 less ADI's. As I have previously stated on this blog, I've not personally known it as low as it currently is at 39,373. If you just concentrate on who is wanting to come in to the industry (in other words registered with the DVSA to try to qualify) the numbers are dramatically increasing: 12/13 5142 13/14 5455 14/15 6150 15/16 6790 16/17 7430 But the numbers qualifying out of all those entries is very low. A well reputed driving instructor training company "Tri-Coaching" recently reported the proportion actually qualifying to registering for driving instructor training is only 9% There are more people leaving the register each month, than there are new ADI's coming into the industry. http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/
