Driving Schools vs training organisations & colleges
Introduction
Before you invest time and money into becoming a driving instructor it is important that you are able to distinguish between those organisations who genuinely want to recruit you and those who simply want to enrol you onto an expensive driving instructor course.
Background to the Industry
All the major driving schools (e.g. LDC, BSM and the AA) train their own instructors. Up until about 10 years ago, driving schools did virtually all the instructor training in the UK and there were only a few small independent instructor training organisations.
However since then, a number of large instructor training companies/colleges have emerged, dramatically increasing the number of people who are being trained each year to become driving instructors. But despite this increase in training, the number of people qualifying each year has only marginally increased, indicating that these new training companies must in truth achieve very poor results.
Most instructor training companies/colleges offer some form of guaranteed placement with an unnamed driving school (or some new driving school of their own with no track record) to entice you into buying the training. Many quote the AA Driving School or BSM or indeed LDC and give the impression that they guarantee a position with them when in fact there is no commitment from the named driving school whatsoever.
About 6 years ago a number of the larger training organisations/colleges started up their own driving schools and offered so-called ‘placements’ with them. For example, Mentor created LetsDrive in 2001 and The Instructor College (TIC) set up Red driving school in 1999. Whilst both these driving schools have been heavily promoted since then they have relatively few cars on the road when you consider the tens of thousands of people who have probably purchased instructor training courses with the sole intention of joining them.
Instructor training factories
LVG limited who trade under the name of Red Driving School, The Instructor College (TIC) and LetsDrive claim to train more people to become driving instructors than the rest of the industry put together. If true, this would indicate that they sell about 12,000 instructor courses/jobs per annum based on the number of people who apply to become driving instructors as published by the DSA. This is over 20 times the number of instructor courses provided by LDC each year and probably 5 times the combined number provided by BSM, the AA and LDC.
Any company primarily dependent on instructor training course sales for its income has to continually train larger numbers of people to survive and prosper. Not surprisingly, to process such numbers does require these types of organisations to employ production line training rather than a carefully crafted course tailored to meet the needs of each individual student. Training that has to be funnelled through a small number of relatively low paid trainers resulting in long waiting times between sessions and/or long distances to travel. Training where you are not allowed to book Part 2 or Part 3 training until you have applied for the appropriate exam and/or have passed Part 1 and Part 2 respectively. A process clearly designed to spread out the training and thus minimise the trainers needed. Training that can lack continuity and structure because you are allocated different in-car trainers and have to share the training with different students at different stages and/or with differing abilities.
Having to process such large volumes of students over such time scales and sometime distances (if they are a roaming trainer as preferred by organisations such as Lets Drive) makes it virtually impossible for the trainer to provide properly focussed individual training in a timely manner, which is vital if you are to be successful at the Part 3 stage. While mass production methods might be a great way to build cars it is a very ineffective and impersonal way to develop people and their instructional skills.
Although LDC students can do training with two students to one trainer, most elect to do one-to-one training thus enabling the training to be perfectly tailored to their needs. LDC have over 40 DSA ORDIT qualified trainers strategically placed around the UK to help ensure your training is as locally-based as possible. And because they are paid premium rates for providing instructor training you will always find them eager to book you in for your training sessions. LDC also overlap the training such that you can start Part 2 while completing Part 1 and start Part 3 while completing Part 2 to avoid any time being wasted. Unlike theory, skills take time and practice to develop so the sooner you can start preparation the better. We also provide a comprehensive student centred open learning programme of exercises and activities that covers all three Parts of the examination so that you can direct your own training and not be solely dependent upon us to make progress.
What ORDIT is not
ORDIT was established to protect the public from substandard instructor training by setting ‘minimum’ standards of competence for training providers. Being on ORDIT does not necessarily guarantee that the company is financially sound, that it will provide sufficient training in a timely manner or that it will deliver the career promises it may have made. For example, LetsDrive recorded a cumulative loss of £1.2 million in its published accounts but still managed to gain entry onto ORDIT in May 2006 with just 18 trainers declared to cover the 50 locations it maintains it provides training from.
High-pressure timeshare selling techniques
When you start to look at the possibility of becoming a driving instructor you also need to be wary of those independent training colleges and other such organisations that use high-pressure timeshare selling techniques. When you call such organisations they usually try to book you into a group selling session as quickly as possible (i.e. within a day or two). At these meetings, an experienced sales presenter will work the group into an excited frenzy by exaggerating the career prospects and making the exams seem incredibly easy.
Remember, if the instructor training college/organisation is only offering a guaranteed position with an unnamed school or a superficial school they know you will not actually join, it is easy for them to exaggerate the earnings potential and career prospects etc. At the end of the meeting they would get you to book an assessment drive or joining class so that they can close the sale.
Not all instructor training companies use group selling especially those masquerading as driving schools (i.e. driving schools that make the vast majority, if not all, of their income from instructor training). However, they still exaggerate the support and earnings potential because they know only a very select few will ever qualify or take up the job offered once they discover the extra costs and time delays involved before they can join or the fact that the franchise simply doesn’t work in the majority of cases.
Training companies are renowned for offering some kind of incentive to get you to pay on the day and sign an agreement on the spot. If you do not sign on the spot you will find that you are continually pestered on the phone or written to with special offers and further discounts. Some organisations have refined their sales techniques to such an extent that they can get you to part with your money within just a few days of your call.
Decide in haste repent at leisure
A decision of this importance should not be hurried and should be carefully considered over a number of weeks or indeed months after collecting all the facts together. At LDC we insist on holding a one-to-one interview with you to help you decide if the career is right for you. Following this interview, if all goes well, we will write to you making you a firm course and career offer. We then ask you to carefully consider the offer over a few weeks before making any decisions, signing any documents or paying any money.
Over the past 10 years there has been an explosion in the number of instructor training colleges and other such training organisations offering so-called ‘guaranteed’ placements with unnamed or unproven driving schools. Ironically, despite this dramatic increase in the number of organisations training people to become instructors, the actual number of instructors on the DSA ADI register is virtually the same as it was 10 years ago (approximately 33,000 in 1995/96 and 34,000 in 2004/05). This would indicate that these colleges and other such training organisations have had in the main no effect on our industry and must in truth achieve very poor results. Some are therefore clearly profiteering at both the industry’s and the public’s expense.