I recently wrote ten top tips to help pass your standards check. I have included the ten top tips at the end of this email in case you missed them
Now I want to take this opportunity to look at potential reasons why ADIs might fail:
1. Many PDIs/ADIs come on our training days and say, ‘I have a test next week’ (or next month) because it is not until the dreaded brown envelope falls through the door that any form of training is contemplated and then panic can set in or I have failed my last attempt, I need some help. Life could be so much easier if we adopted an approach that keeps our skills up to date.
2. Route planning – often the route is far too complicated and doesn’t suit the learner’s needs.
3. Lesson Planning. The subject chosen doesn’t fit the learner but happens to be the ADI’s favourite subject.
4. The ADI says nothing and lets the learner get on with it.
5. The ADI doesn’t shut up and doesn’t give the learner a chance.
6. Great questions are asked but at the wrong time.
7. The ADI doesn’t ask any questions.
8. Risk management is ignored except for a statement that says ‘I have dual controls’.
9. No learning actually takes place.
10. There was no evidence of any value for money.
This is a fairly negative view point and I have had the pleasure of meeting and training with lots of great ADIs but, in my opinion, updating your skills, evaluating your performance and increasing your customer satisfaction levels are all essential skills.
We all know the ADI who knows everything, has a full diary, everyone passes first time and likes the phrase, ‘It’s not rocket science’. Well how we learn and teach/coach/instruct has been a challenge for the human race since time began.
Learning to drive shouldn’t be complicated but if that was the case, how come a day doesn’t go by without drivers crashing?
We know this is a fact and yet our training to become an ADI rarely looks at the reasons that cause these crashes. We just look at the skills needed to move a car from A to B without hitting something.
Continual Professional Development is essential, if your at the start of your journey or you have been doing the job a long time, change is inevitable.
These ten tips have been written to help you prepare for your Standards Check but actually many of them are just as valid for your lessons.
These tips are all good points and worthwhile using when you reflect on your own performance from time to time rather than waiting for the Standards Check to arrive.
1. Do not wait for the brown envelope before you decide to review your lessons against the DVSA National Standard for Driver and Rider training. Start now. You can find out more here.
2. Make sure you take someone that you have rapport with, other wise it will be hard work and you will put yourself under too much pressure.
3. Take some time to prepare by reading the Examiners Guidance notes
4. Read the National Standards – often referred to as Role 6 – and ask yourself two simple questions: Does my training match these Standards? Are there areas that I could develop? You can find the driving syllabus here.
5. Communication – a secret to success. Using non judgemental communication is in the Standards Check and Part 3. Did the trainer maintain an appropriate non-discriminatory manner throughout the session?
6. The GOAL – it is all about the goal. We are the experts but we do need to ensure that the goal is about the learner’s previous experience and their needs and not just about the subject.
7. Use coaching and instructional techniques that you are comfortable with – your Standards Check is not the day you decide to experiment.
8. Change the goal if something happens that is more important then the original goal – do this in negotiation with your customer. The GROW model is a useful conversational tool to help you structure goal setting conversations.
9.Risk Management is all about sharing responsibility and making sure that you and your customer know what is about to happen when setting up a training exercise.
10. Ask for help if you need it in preparing your everyday lessons and Standards Check. Your lessons will be great already but seeking improvement is an essential part of any business.
Come and join me Graham Hooper on my next workshop helping you to pass your Part 3 and Standards Check.
You can reserve your place now by following this link there are limited spaces, give yourself an early Christmas present.
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