Why am I looking forward to 2011? and why should my pupils be exited about their driver training.
2011 is the year when I'm really going to embrace 'coaching' not as a philosophy but as a natural way to perform driver training.
Coaching is something that I have always done in previous 'jobs', over the years come in for a great deal of flack from Managing Directors (you know who you are John England!)because allowing staff to make there own decisions and set their own targets wasn't the way they had always done things. I've even been accused of having no control because my staff never through tantrums and I didn't shout at them! To me this just seemed the natural way to do things. We even use coaching with our children,don't we, we always get them to think for themselves, make their own decisions and mistakes and to learn from them - isn't this exactly what driver training coaching guru's are telling us?
I don't for one minute think that because I've read a few books and been on a couple of courses that I know it all, like we tell our pupils, it's constant learning, make a mistake learn from it and do it better next time. The hard part is going to be stopping myself slipping back into 'telling' especially for someone who's such a control freak! One thing that the 'Instructor College' was good at is ramming home "don't let the pupil take control!"
So, all new pupils will be presented with a bound training folder that covers all the key elements of learning to drive, they now have control because they know what they are going to be taught, and more to the point they can plan the lessons, they do that week what they want to do, obviously within reason - but any objections to wanting to do overtaking on dual carriageways in the 1st lesson will lead to a better understanding. I'm also making the 'elements' signing off the responsibility of the pupil after all they are the ones who have to feel comfortable with it.
I just wish I had the Adobe Illustrator skills to make the training folders more presentable, but hey, they look ok.
All pupils get access to the Theory test data base on-line, this means that they can practise wherever they have Internet access -- no excuses! Doing it this way also allows me to keep an eye on what they are doing, how much practice they are getting and what type. It's going to be an interesting year Theory test wise, especially for those starting their driving towards the end of the year, but as I've always tried to drum home with my pupils is that they must retain the knowledge, not just use it to pass a test and then forget it. Maybe the threat of not having access to the test question bank will be enough to get them to learn correctly if not i will come up with some method to achieve this.
Hanging around the edges of coaching last year, my pupils reduced the number of lessons to pass their test to 22-30, the ones that I really let off the leash nearer to 22 than 30. This year I want to get the average down to 20-24 hours. I don't see this as taking food out of my mouth, "are you more likely to recommend someone who gets you your licence after 20 hours or someone who takes 40+?" In theory this will also allow me to put my prices up way above average, do the sums. 40 hours at £20 = £800, 20 hours at £25 = £500, which instructor would you go with?
Ok, not every ones the same, some will take longer, but then they are going to take longer anyway!
So, despite the back end of 2010 were a nightmare because of this 'Thatcherite' government and the weather, I'm looking forward to 2011 with a big grin on my face because i know that the future is bright!
