Driving Instructor Training Alert

For Redundant Professionals

Redundant professionals retraining as driving instructors are falling prey to rogue operators who charge high fees with little guarantee of a job at the end.

In return for as much as £5,000, they promise to get hopefuls through the instructor test so they can set up in what is seen as a recession-proof career.

But the failure rate at the final stage of the test is high and even those who pass may find it hard to make a living, given the glut of instructors.

'Some professionals retraining as driving instructors are being ripped off

by unscrupulous con artists'

'Ironically, there is a lot of money to be made teaching driving instructors, but there is not a lot in teaching learners,' said Stephen Picton, spokesman for the Driving Instructors Association (DIA). 'It is increasingly difficult to earn a living.'

He said two urgently needed measures were an end to the system whereby provisional driving instructors can take pupils in the six months before they take the final part of the test and much tighter regulation of the instructor-training business.

There are 3,139 provisional driving instructors and 44,448 fully qualified instructors.

Roger Ison, head of instructor resourcing and training at BSM, Britain's biggest driving school, said he shared concerns about rogue operators, though he did not agree that there were too many instructors.

'We and other reputable organisations belong to the Official Register of Driving Instructor Trainers (Ordit). We would like membership to be compulsory,' he said.

To get on the register involves extra training. At present any qualified driving instructor can start the process of becoming an instructor trainer themselves.

Ison added that 90 per cent of those who embarked on BSM's £2,500 instructor course passed the final test and became fully qualified. The average pass rate, according to official figures, is 38.8 per cent.

One driving instructor in Warwickshire said: 'When people are being taught by a provisional instructor they are not aware that they are paying as much as they would for a qualified instructor.'

The Driving Standards Agency, which regulates driving instruction, said it was reviewing the instructor qualification process, including whether provisional instructors should take pupils, and would look at making Ordit membership mandatory.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/money/article-1102128/Driving-instructor-training-alert-redundant-professionals.html

Plenty of miles left in oldest instructor's tank:

Irish News

31st December 2007

NORTHERN Ireland's oldest driving instructor will mark the new year by celebrating half a century of coaching people through the dreaded driving test.

Patrick Deehan (83) first tutored pupils in an Austin A30 - complete with starting handle - in January 1958.

Since then he has changed to a modern Renault Clio and has clocked up an estimated two million accident-free miles.

He can also boast that he was the person who persuaded Ulsterbus to allow female drivers behind the wheel and the first person in the north to get a HGV licence.

Mr Deehan, from Derramore Park, Magherafelt began driving as a teenager and had planned a career as a tennis coach until the compulsory driving test was introduced.

"Everybody laughed when I started because at that time you got a licence for 25p and the compulsory test had just come in so people were not used to being tested - that was called learning by accident," he says.

"I put a sign on the roof of my car on the second week in January and it all began from there."

One of the proudest moments of his career was the time spent teaching a young man who had lost both legs and an arm in an electrical accident.

In 1965 Jim Patterson made headlines when he passed his test at the first attempt.

"He came to me with an adapted car asking to learn how to drive," Mr Meehan says.

"I never met a fellow who whined as little about his disabilities. He came to me a year after he'd had the accident and a year later he was ready to sit the test."

"Some people came to know he was doing it and on the day, TV cameras arrived. I was busy telling them to stay away in case the attention made him nervous but he passed the test."

"He then had difficulty getting insurance so I put him through an advanced test and there they said he was so good they had never met his equal."

Another challenge came when Niall Higgins booked a driving test for his 17th birthday.

Mr Deehan took the youngster for his first lesson the moment he was legally allowed to drive - at one minute past midnight.

Other lessons followed at 8.30am and 11.30am before the teenager passed the test at 3pm later that day.

"It was the first time I put someone in for the test the same day as giving them their first lesson," he says.

As well as being an instructor, Mr Deehan became the north's only accident investigator in 1981 and still practices, appearing as an expert witness in cases in England and the Republic.

He also was responsible for introducing female drivers at Ulsterbus and retrained driving instructors for the company following a spate of serious accidents.

Mr Deehan's years of experience tell him the best way to transform today's little boy racers into good drivers is by providing incentives.

"The government can spend a fortune on education and prosecution but it wouldn't take a mint of money to have some form of competition or prize if they behave themselves for a few years," he says.

Mr Deehan's South Derry School of Motoring is still on the go but the age range of the learners has changed since he first began. "Then the average driver was 39 but now it's around 19 and it's the young people who really keep me young. I know how to put fake tan on for instance. And I know that formals cost a fortune for young men," he says.

"When I look back I realise that I love driving, driving instruction and all the wonderful people who I have met over the years. I'm glad I took this opportunity. I wouldn't have missed it."

http://www.irishnews.com/page.asp?catid=540&subcatid=5860&sid=576279