Sub-standard driving instructor training

When a PDI or ADI takes time off from earning a wage, in order to do CPD, they are seeking value.  In much the same way as our customers seek value from us as driving instructors.  The training has to be of practical benefit, aligned to the needs of the driving instructor, be robust, have integrity and authority and ultimately, provide the driving instructor with practical armoury to go fight another day out in the big bad wild west.

There is much made from the DVSA and also training providers about the expectation for driving instructors to participate in CPD.  One of the reasons why I booked myself up on the recent safeguarding course was to keep myself up to date with standards.  But you just can't get away from the fact that the end product, in this case, the training course does have to deliver.  If training providers are offering sub-standard CPD for driving instructors, don't be surprised if the take up for it is low.

Gloss does not cut it.  Cameron and Osbourne are currently doing the rounds on social media with all their forecasts of doom and gloom a few years ago should the referendum result be "leave".  They looked the part; all suited up, high profile jobs and completely and utterly wrong in everything they predicted.  Politicians are not known for their ability to listen and many of our driving instructor training providers show the same characteristic.  

Driving instructors desire training that is of practical benefit and arms them with skills and techniques to help them do their job and run a successful business.  I've said it on this blog before and it still holds true, training in our industry appears to be of the 'emergency first aid' variety.  It tends to concentrate around helping instructors get better grades on standards checks rather than being meaningfully beneficial on a day to day basis.  One only needs to look at education in the UK to realise that focussing on exam grades to satisfy the checks from OFSTED does not make for good education of our younger generation.

But the safeguarding course I just attended was not of the 'standards check' variety and yet it was utterly failing in all aspects of being beneficial to driving instructors. It was appallingly poor and run by an organisation that keeps insisting that driving instructors must do more CPD.  Yea.... right.