Back in March 2016, I made the decision to become a Driving Instructor in and around Lincoln. I decided that I wanted to go down this route – One, because it pays the bills and two, job satisfaction. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing one of your pupils, who you’ve worked closely with teaching them to drive, pass their driving test. The smile on their face when the examiner says those all-important words; “I’m pleased to say you’ve passed.

So what’s it like to learn? No secret behind it, it’s hard but very, very rewarding. There’s multiple things you have to do to become an ADI. So here’s the explanation; –

Firstly I met up with Glyn the owner of U Drive msm to discuss instructor training options. I was given all the information needed to get the ball rolling and knew I could pick up the phone and call Glyn with any problems or quires. My first test…

Part 1

This is your theory and hazard perception test. It’s got more questions than the standard test, but don’t worry about this too much as it’s just common knowledge. U Drive offered me free ADI theory software which was a great help.

Part 2

This is your driving ability, how you drive as a person. As you can appreciate, if you’re going to teach people how to drive, your personal driving needs to be immaculate. In comes Jane Clarke, AKA my saviour. Naturally, as a male, my driving was the best it was ever going to be… Apparently not the case. There were a few minor details that I needed to fix before my Part 2 test, and relentlessly, she worked with me to iron out the faults. Test day came and I passed with 0 minors.

Part 3

This is your Instructional Methods… The biggie! This is where you learn to teach driving. “Can’t be that hard”, I thought. How wrong was I! You have to look at everything and assess anything. In comes Jane Clarke again, who advised me that the average number of hours tuition you need for your Part 3 was between 40-60 hours. Never have I been so helpful of someone’s help before. Jane takes you under her wing and shows you exactly what you need to know, not what you could need to know.

Lesson by lesson, she coached me into thinking in the correct way and asking the correct questions. Before I knew it I was well under way with actually teaching Jane, who was playing the part of the student, the basics of driving. When I could comfortably hold my own authority in the car with the barrage of questions and faults that you will normally get from a student, she stepped things up a notch and went onto the more complex lessons.

Before I knew it, Jane announced, “Right, let’s get your test booked”…38 hours of tuition had passed. “How?”, I thought. Sounds cheesy, but time flies when you’re having fun. Test day comes and a 0715 start was a shock. But I was ready. We had a 45min drive to Scunthorpe’s Test Centre where Jane got me to teach another lesson and just pumped me full of confidence. This was it, D-Day… Zero Hour, it was now or never. Test took an hour to complete and at the end of it, to my relief, the examiner uttered those all-important words “I’m pleased to say you’ve passed”. That was it! I’d done it, I was now officially a fully qualified Approved Driving Instructor!

Now the important task of finding a driving school to go with. UDrive was the obvious choice, with it’s customer base and very friendly instructors. I was welcomed in with open arms. I’d made it, I’d completed my goal.

Anyone wanting to go for it, I whole heartedly urge you to do it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a hard process but one of the most rewarding ones.

Simon Cullen ADI