You may have considered training to be a driving instructor but find yourself being put off because you don’t honestly feel like you know what you would do, and don’t want to be a fraud. This blog aims to help you recognise what is truly at the heart of being a driving instructor.  

Is it just a simple case of choosing a particular topic like roundabouts, and then having a pre-prepared script in your mind with anything and everything you know about them? Do you treat every new absolute beginner the same way – going through a routine you have in your mind about introducing all the key elements of the vehicle? When a pupil makes a mistake, do you just go straight back and do it again every single time? Do you need to have a particular way that you like to get your pupils to do a reverse bay park? 

The short answer is no. This is not the way that we would like BIG TOM pupils to be treated. When you train to be a driving instructor with us, you will want us to see and hear you as your own person, with all the aspects of light and shade recognised because, ultimately, that is you. Well, that is precisely how we as driving instructors should also be working with our pupils.  

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Omar Khayyam uses an apt phrase: “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life” 

 

All of us carry a rucksack of good times, skills, experience, trauma, desire and tragedy on our back. It is what makes us unique and when you value this, then you naturally are keen to see what makes others unique as well – like your pupils.  

It is just a fact that not everyone likes to learn in the same way. What might appeal to you about an explanation of the workings of the clutch will not necessarily work for 7 out of every 10 of your pupils.  Gulp -best you take another look at that explanation again  

Now in an academic environment like a classroom, any disconnect of what a teacher intends for a student to learn, versus what they actually learn results in less knowledge and lower grades. But in the driving training environment, a loss of meaning in learning could result in increased risk. If a pupil does not understand an answer you provide, or a methodology or a demonstration, then it might affect safety. It could well affect their confidence. It could even affect their trust in you, and diminish your working relationship. And yes, it may well affect their driving ability. 

Meaning is key. If you are saying, doing, or demonstrating things that have no ‘meaning’ to a pupil, (you know this because you have checked for learning), then don’t continue on regardless. You really do need to adapt. And it is this ability to adapt that we would be delighted to help you with when you come on board with BIG TOM.   

We make no assumptions about you, we definitely do not judge or criticise you, instead, we do absolutely everything we possibly can to make you the most successful driving instructor you can be.