Driving Instructors in Worksop

What’s the difference between driving instructors?

Not many people know much about driving instructors. Yep, we drive cars and most driving schools have dual controls fitted in their cars and we help you reach a safe standard of driving whereby hopefully you’ll go on to take and pass your driving test. But I wanted to give you a little bit more of an insight into just exactly what a driving instructor is.

In order to become a driving instructor, firstly you have to pass a DBS check. This was formerly known as a CRB check. This is a background check on each instructor and normally ends up with the police doing checks on them too. If this stage is passed, then the wannabe driving instructor can then go on and take their training. Just to reassure you, our team of instructors have been through and passed the DBS checks.

There are two different types of driving instructors
There is an ADI and a PDI. A PDI is someone who is going through their training and generally speaking have passed two out of their three exams and are just training to take their third and final exam.

An ADI is someone who has passed all three exams set out by the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). Also, has been accepted on the register of approved driving instructors (ADI). It’s quite easy to tell whether a driving instructor is a trainee (PDI) or a fully qualified ADI by the colour of their badge that is displayed in their windscreen. A PDI will have a Pink badge and an ADI will have a Green badge. A PDI’s badge lasts for six months, during that time it is expected that a PDI would have gone on and taken their third and final exam to qualify as an ADI.

A trainee driving instructor has to be sponsored by another driving school. So a PDI will come under the umbrella of another driving school and abide by their code of conduct. My advice is never to pay for driving tuition unless you can see either a Pin or Green badge in their windscreen.

To become a driving instructor can take anywhere from four months to two years. Obviously this depends on how often you can make yourself available to train and study and also the quality of the training you receive.

Once a driving instructor becomes fully qualified, they can then choose to either go independent or to work on a franchise basis and work with an existing driving school. Every driving instructor is graded. The grades used to run from 1 to 6, this was called a “check test” but things have changed since 2014 and now every driving instructor still gets checked for quality assurance but it is now called a standards check. The grading system for the standards check runs from A, B or F. For a driving instructor to remain as a driving instructor they have to achieve either a grade A or grade B. If a driving instructor fails their standards check, they then have a further two attempts to improve their skills and reach the criteria set out by the Driving Vehicle and Standards Agency.