Training to be a Driving Instructor – Part 2: How do I choose my trainer?

How do I choose my trainer?

So just how do I choose my trainer? I have briefly referred to this in my previous blog post – the simple answer is ‘very carefully’!

Do your research. What do I mean by this? Don’t just trust page 1 of Google! The national companies with their massive advertising budgets will inevitably dominate the top slots. If you were to ask a man or woman in the street to name a driving school those with little or no experience of driving lessons recently will probably come up with BSM or AA or another national company they have heard of. Unless they have a family member or friend who has taken driving lessons recently they are unlikely to mention more local driving schools or instructors.

The ORDIT register

One good way to find out more about local trainers is to look at the ORDIT register. ORDIT stands for the Official Register of Driving Instructor Trainers. One of the frustrating things about instructor training is that you do not have to have a single qualification to offer training! As absurd as it may sound anyone can set up an instructor training course – and charge for it! The ORDIT register is voluntary, something many of us would like to see changed. As with any list of members, training methods and effectiveness can vary so just because somebody is on the ORDIT register does not automatically mean they are good. However, the likelihood is that any ORDIT registered trainer is far more likely to have undergone additional training – at their own expense – to gain further experience and expertise in training people who want to become driving instructors. In my experience, you are far. more likely to get good training from an ORDIT registered trainer than not. But I must add that there are some excellent trainers who have decided, for their own personal reasons, not to join ORDIT. In addition, to remain on the ORDIT register an trainer is assessed regularly by a senior examiner from the DVSA. He or she will sit in the back of a training session and also inspect an instructors training records to make sure there is a defined structure to what that person is offering to prospective trainees.

National or local?

This is a potentially tricky question to answer. As I have already mentioned, the national companies with their big advertising budgets will always occupy the top spaces in an internet search. Some national companies have a better reputation than others. But all of them are likely to entice you in with offers that, in some cases, may seem too good to be true – which means they probably are!. I mentioned some that I found when I did a search in my last blog post. There are other things you need to consider too, for example:

• will my training be in my local area or will I have to travel?
• is the training on a 1:1 basis or will I be sharing the time with another trainee?
• will I be tied in to the franchise once qualified and how long for? Some companies require you to remain with them for at least 12 months. Especially those whose training g fees seem ridiculously low.
• is a car be supplied? How much a week will this cost?
• will I be charged a fee for every pupil I am sent?
• can I set my own hours and areas that I am happy to travel to?

At Training Wheelz we have a series of questions that we send to every prospective trainee – with our answers. They are questions we recommend you ask to any training company. We can send this list to you if you wish.

So what more can you do to answer the question how do I choose my trainer? Do’t discount the local trainers! Find them via the ORDIT register. They are likely to charge more than the national companies but the long term gains – both in training quality and financially – are likely to be much better. You almost certainly won’t get tied in to a long franchise and the trainer is much more likely to be interested in you and making sure you qualify.

Ask if you can speak to any of their trainees – be suspicious if they are not prepared to let you do this or if they say they haven’t currently got any! Ask to sit in on a lesson to see if this really is something you think you want to do.

There are lots of ways to help you make an informed decision and not regret an expensive mistake months down the line. Both myself and Christie, the Training Wheelz trainers, are more than willing to have a chat on the phone and/or to meet with you to answer any questions you have so please feel free to contact us.

I hope this post helps you to go some away to working out how to choose your trainer. Next time I will go into more details about the benefits of working for a franchise or whether to become an independent instructor