My road to becoming a driving instructor started back in 1991 when as a provisional license holder I was preparing for the driving test, and had an instructor from BSM. I was very impressed with my driving instructor, not only was he technically competent, but he was very friendly and didn't put any pressure on me to have lessons, but gave his advice and allowed me to make up my own mind.
I was thus very disappointed when just 2 weeks before my test he was replaced by someone else because he had a personal emergency. The replacement driving instructor smoked in the car which was inconvenient to me, but also had a care free attitude, and wasn't very positive with his feedback rather concentrating more on the mistakes I was making. Luckily enough for me, I was confident in my driving, and I held on to my first instructors words. I passed and didn't have to see him again.
The positive impact of the first instructor made me entertain the thought that I would one day also like to be an instructor like him, firstly I love driving, and secondly I cherished the idea of being able to impact someone's life by helping them learn how to drive.
It was sometime before I actually achieved that dream, but even before I started on the journey to be a driving instructor, I actually helped a few friends practise for their test by being their accompanying driver.
Note: It is illegal in the UK to receive money or monetary rewards for accompanying or teaching someone to drive unless your name is on the department of transports Approved Driving Instructor's register, this includes receiving money for fuel.
I officially started my journey to become an approved driving instructor in the summer of 1999. I will go through the whole journey of the hurdles I had to overcome in a future post.
More Reading
Driving instructor Earnings and Salary
How I became a driving instructor.
My ADI Check Test
ADI training costs.
I have to say that as someone learning to drive myself at the moment I find a lot of what you say to your pupils all too familiar..
ReplyDeletehaving said that one of the arguments that my current instructor says why people should always choose local instructors with a good reputation rather than someone like the BSM/AA is due to the fact that you can't determine which instructor you get with the big companies.
The bad instructors get to live off the reputation off the good ones and as you found in your case had you been any less experienced you might have not passed so quickly due to his poor teaching standard.