Instructor Training

Instructor training 

Both of us trained to be driving instructors around other jobs. Scott was in the Steel industry and Lucy was a horse riding instructor. Are you looking for a new career? Do you enjoy managing your own diary and meeting people? We’d both say it’s extremely rewarding, passing knowledge and expertise onto others. There’s definitely no better feeling than seeing your clients become safe, confident drivers and congratulating them on passing their test! 

We understand though that changing careers is not to be taken lightly and that it’s not for everyone. The pass rates for completing all three qualifying tests are low, below fifty percent. However the teaching part of the qualifying tests has recently changed and is now a more realistic scenario. We both completed pay as you go training through our qualifying exams and would only offer that to others. We’ve both seen companies asking for a lot of money upfront with promises that you will definitely qualify and unfortunately we’ve met people who have fallen foul of this and spent a lot of money and never qualified. Therefore the pay as you train option feels like the fairest one. 

To become an instructor you first have to check if you meet the requirements: 

- Be 21 years old or over

- Have held a full driving licence for 3 years-if you have a manual car licence you can teach people in manual and automatic cars. If you have an automatic car licence you will only be able to teach people in automatic cars. If you have an automatic car licence because of a disability you may need to complete an extra test to check you can react and regain control of the car in a situation where the client may lose control. 

- Have not been banned from driving in the last 4 years 

You will then need to apply for a DBS disclosure. After that the registrar will consider your application. You could be turned down if any of the following apply: 

- You have been banned from driving

- You have 5 or more penalty points 

- You have been convicted of any non-motoring offences 

You are very likely to be refused if any of the following apply:

- You have been convicted of a sexual, violent, financial or drug related crime

- You are banned from working with children 

If all the above are present and correct then you can then proceed with the three qualifying exams.  These are known as ADI part 1,2 and 3. 

Part 1 is Theory, Part 2 is advanced driving and Part 3 is the teaching exam.

You can have as many attempts at Part 1 as you require. When Part 1 is passed you must pass Part 2 and Part 3 and register within 2 years. You only have three attempts at each of Part 2 and 3. If you fail either of these three times you have to wait two years before reapplying. 

If you are interested in training from scratch or are part way through your training we can help. We also offer standard check training for fully qualified ADI’s. Please call us for further details.