Would you pay an unqualified driving instructor?

I agree with Dan, I would like to know, and I’d like to be given the option to pay less if the driving instructor isn’t qualified yet. Just like the nurses they need the experience, and I would imagine they would try to be as good as they can in order to get fully qualified, sooner or later.

I also agree with Richard that learning with a good experienced driver can work very well too. The only problem then is finding them if you don’t know them already.

I have been an ADI 8 years and whilst I had a good pass rate rate from my trainee days, I know the way I teach now and the accuracy and quality of my training has improved no end since then. Some trainees are doubtless very good but clients also need to be aware that 2 out 3 trainees don’t actually qualify – so what about the lessons from those? How good were they? The system isn’t fair to the public and needs to be more accountable. The solution – every trainee given lesson is supervised by a qualified instructors. Just like in other industries.

MikeW (and Andy) – I stand corrected! Yes, only people who have passed their ADI Part 2 – Test of Driving Ability can apply for a trainee licence and give driving lessons to learner drivers. That does indeed mean that many of the two thirds who didn’t pass the final exam to qualify (ADI Part 3) may well have given driving lessons to unsuspecting members of the public. Nevertheless, I still find it surprising that only that only 9 out of every 100 who set out to qualify as an ADI (i.e. pass all three exams) between 2009 and 2010 – actually did so. I still reckon my arithmetic is correct here. Doesn’t that say something about the state of the Driving Instructor training industry?

Just going back to some of these comments I feel obliged to write.Andy the pink licence was given to you after passing both parts 1 and 2 of the test and you had completed at least 40 hrs training (probably not enough to pass the test). The pink obviously helped you because you say you have improved. Would you have been a better instructor after passing the part 3 without being on a pink?

Richard also stated many passed 1st time but those that failed would have done anyway because they were incompetent. This is down to the teaching then isnt it? I would never let one of my learners go to test that wasn’t ready.

As with the instructor training industry in a state I agree with BobHW to a certain extent it is too many of the larger organisations push through instructors on a pink when they are not ready and dont check up on them.

The pink licence can be a useful teaching aid I for one went on a pink for 6 weeks and passed my pt3 first time. A really testing learner helped me gain confidence and ability to take the test but….. I feel I had had enough training and worked really hard at what I did. I have been an instructor for 4 years and now gained my grade 6 fleet. I think some instructors who have been working for a number of years and never progessed passed that grade 4 are sometimes worse than a trainee who has worked hard and got the feel for the job.

BobHW The fact that only 9% of applicants pass part 3 is more of a reflection on the quality of applicants than the state of the industry. Many of the training organisations imply that anyone with a licence can teach, fortunately the DSA weed out many who cannot. Far to many have come to me thinking they can get on the register in two or thee weeks, no effort required and that the job is just a case of sitting in a car being driven around town all day.As a grade 5 you know that is not what we do at all.

Is Your Driving Instructor Fully Qualified Or A Trainee?
ADI or PDI…what’s the difference in the two types of driving instructor and what do you get for your money?

Driving instructors must pass a difficult three-part examination to fully qualify as an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI), and they have to maintain the high standards required by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) by passing periodic tests.

Fully qualified instructors are called Approved Driving Instructors (ADI’s) and have a GREEN badge

Trainee driving instructors are called Potential Driving Instructors (PDI’s) and have a PINK badge

Certain driving schools, including some of the larger national ones such as BSM, LDC, Drive Dynamics, Kan Kan, RED and Bill Plant will have a percentage of trainee’s working for them. So when phoning around it can be worth asking if your driving instructor will be a PDI or an ADI just so you know where you stand.

A PDI can apply for a short-term licence to give driving tuition in exchange for payment after they have passed the second part of the three qualifying exams. This licence is only granted for a six month period (but in some special circumstances can occasionally be extended for a longer time period by the DSA). So as you can see, they cannot teach as a PDI for very long.

It is important to note that a PDI has not yet passed the third exam which is a test of their instructional ability. The only exams they have passed are driving theory and an advanced driving test…so they have proved they can drive and know the rules and regulations…but are they any good at teaching?

Pass rates for july/aug/sept 2010

adi part one 45%
adi part two 55%
adi part three 35%

Number of ADI`s on the register as of November 2010 total 46971
grade six 2745
grade 5 13970
grade 4 21875

please note the grading is determined by Driving standards examiners who assess the instructors approx every 4 years, cost to renew licence is £300 per four year period.

Hi everyone, i just thought id let you all know that i passed my adi part 2 incase anyone is wondering.

Sammy

There are alot of instructors out there who simply cannot do the job, as the standard of an instructor today is much higher than it was in the 80s. So its a shame that these guys sadly dont have a clue, the driving test itself has become much harder to pass than it ever was with independant driving now and also a much stricter test. But in conjunction with richards comment being an instructor cant be that hard. Its extremely hard you may have been lucky with the pupils you got and the may have been quick learners, but if you are faced with a learner driving down a mountain and picking up speed rapid and you have to control them to make a turn safely etc i doubt you would be equipped to deal with that and that is the type of things the examiner does on a adi part 3 exam. thats why the pass rate is so low. But if you take quality training you can deal with any situation.

Sammy

Hi, i am just about to start on my trainee license and i am disgusted with some of the comments i have read, i have taken 40 hours of training to prepare me for this and my instructor would not have agreed if he didnt feel i could do it. Who says an unqualified instructor is not as good as a qualified one? its just a piece of paper at the end of the day. We all have to start out somewhere and there are trainees in hundruds of other jobs too, not just this one.

Gary lets see if and when you pass your part 3 ,then im sure like me you will know its not just a piece of paper ,no pdi can say they are as good as an adi until they have passed all the exams,thats like saying you suck eggs better than your gran have respect as already stated the majority of pdi’s fail part 3.i have been an adi for 8 years and have had 2 check tests , i am graded a 5 though i still strive for a 6 .it all depends on the instructor sure some go through the motions and dont deserve to be on the register but still they passed at some stage and are check tested,the poor are weeded out eventually.

Richard, I truly feel you have no idea what you are talking about and im almost amused. Tell me what would you do if after 12 hours of instruction you are out, with what you have seen to be a competent pupil, who out of the blue brakes at speed by mistake with his left foot? What do you do when someone panics when they can’t find 5th on a dual carriageway and desperately tries to select what is in fact reverse? You saying you teach in a field until they are ready for traffic is like putting someone on a beach donkey until they seem to master it and then expecting them to ride in the Grand National. Say or do as you will, I shan’t read your response and I’m finished with this debate, because I don’t believe you know the first thing about teaching someone to drive safely on the ROAD.

There are no doubt good non ADIs teaching people to drive and the are also a lot of ADIs that are of a very poor standard. I read some websites with total disbelief, that that is actually what the new generation of drivers is being taught. For example one website talked about making sure you could do the manoeuvres without any “minor” faults so that you had 15 left to go for the test. A scrape through attitude which frankly I found dreadful for any professional to hold.
In lots of ways passing the test is the least of the pupils worries. What is far more important is the time after the test when they are on their own. I do not teach people to pass a test I teach them to drive. Something totally different in my opinion. I want to do my upmost to make sure they don’t become another statistic.
Whilst there are very good PDIs who are using the licence to get onroad experience. There are a lot who see it as a way of getting back the money they have spent on training before they take their part 3. So they aren’t all that worried about the standard. I was on a pink licence for about 2 months before my part three and found it very helpful. I was totally honest with all my pupils and asked them for feedback on lessons to help me improve. I do know that there are ways to extend the 6 months too. If you book your part three on say 20th May and your PDI licence expired on the 20 March you can continue teaching. This is used by some of the less scrupulous companies to keep the trainees on for longer. They really don’t care if they pass there are 20 more willing to take their place.

No way would I pay an unqualified driving instructor! There should be a law against impersonating a driving instructor. It’s putting lives at risk!

Ashley

in 2011 nielonsea stated he had been teaching since 1947 some 67 years ago, you have to be 21 to teach a legal requirement so 21 + 67 so a 88 years old instructor or a pdi?
I can remember the 50,s when as a kid we used to go number plate spotting as there was so few cars on road and cars were not for the working man was the bus bike or a moped
I am a trainee instructor spent many £1000,s reckon will have devoted 300 hours to study plus intense in car tuition
I also have been a member of the institute of advanced motorists for 36 years but to become an A D I the training and qualifications is way beyond the level of advanced driving but a good start even I had to go through a lot of untraining from advanced level

I’m amazed this hairy old thread has re-awoken! Just to put the record straight, Barleytony, it was not I who said I had been teaching since 1947, I was not even born then and am thankfully several years away from 88!

That statement was made by Richard, who seems to have generated most of the controversy surrounding this issue.

I’m not going to get hung up on the professional versus amateur point of view. When I first taught someone to drive and pass a test 1st time I was a 27 year old traffic police officer with no formal teaching qualifications – I just knew what made a good driver and knew damn well that my ‘pupil’, a friend of the family was better than test standard when she took it.

I also know that the vast majority of ‘ordinary’ drivers could not, nor want to, teach their offspring to drive as they treasure their sanity too much, not to mention the precious family car.

Driver tuition is changing, as qualified Adis (approved driving instructor) we now have to pass a new standards check every 4 years. We are then graded A (high standard) B (competent stardard). Or fail we then have 2 more tests to prove our stardard is upto scratch. Or we lose our job. The methods we now have to use are based on client centered learning (ccl). This involves the learner being more in control of the learning process. When looking for a instructor ask them to prove what grade they are, as they will be issued with a certificate after their standard check.

Most PDI’s are training to pass their part 3 test therefore their teaching style may be for them to pass there test not for you to pass your test. After they are using you as their practice.

You get some good PDI’s but also bad ones who don’t have a clue what they are doing

I was a pdi with Red driving school, out of a class of 25 pdis only 4 of us went onto qualify as a ADI. I was fortunate that I had been a police officer for 25 years and this helped me with part 1 and part 2. Since leaving red I regurly see pdis teaching on the pink badge. I told my students when I was training, I think pdis should inform their students of their status. It’s very hard to qualify as a ADI

I’m a freshly qualified Instructor who has just passed my Pt3. None of my pupils had a clue was a trainee, but on the other hand knew I was quite new to the job.

Within my first 4 month I had 2 clean sheets and 3 tests under 2 minors, I’ve now just got another 2 clean sheets in my next 6 months. Ive been pulling the results in. At 22/23 and a PDI.
Instruction depends how you are with words and how you adapt yourself to your pupil to become more interesting. I passed my Pt2 with 0 Minors and all I explain is how and why I’d do something in a which is personal to them. But I suppose that isn’t all instructors.

I found I easily get pupils through a test, but the acting had me on the part 3. I’m not an actor! I couldn’t get over it (until yesterday) so some PDI’s can be very genuine.. your ADI’s know how to act (PST Robot) or they have been a PDI with a hard time..