Steel City Instructor Training
Like many instructors out there, when I first enquired about becoming a driving instructor I was wowed by low costs for training. I put the price above the quality and it took me, COVID delays included over a year to get from first thought to first lesson and nearly two years to become fully qualified.
As someone looking to become a driving instructor, you are on the threshold of a truly rewarding career, both financially and emotionally. You are seeing a wide range of offers, from £2500 with some driving schools to the truly alarming £380 for training with others.
What matters is the quality of the training, not the price.
Why train to become a driving instructor?
Do you remember your driving lessons? The nerves on the first lesson. The sense of achievement when you finally nailed that hill start. The blessed relief and joy when you passed your driving test.
As a driving instructor you share in those emotions with your learner drivers. It’s a privileged position to be in and seeing success in the learner drivers you’ve spent months developing into a safe road user is one of the best feelings in the world.
Claims about a driving instructors wage vary wildly. But to compare it to full time work of 40 hours a week:
Hours worked: 40
Hours out of the house: 52.50
Reasonable expectations of gross pay: £1,300.00
Gross pay x 46.2 weeks a year: £60,060.00
From your gross pay you will need to deduct costs such as fuel, the car and any franchise fees and training. You also have to deduct tax and national insurance.
Assuming £180 for fuel, £150 for the car and £60 a week for franchise fees, then knocking off a safe margin for tax, your £60,060 works out as a take home pay of £700 a week or £32,340.00 a year.
If you want to earn more, you can work more. If you want more time at home, you can work less. You are your own boss.
Assumptions: £32.50 per hour. You can see Nick’s current prices here but at the time of writing it was £37.50 an hour which equates to an additional £200 a week. 46.2 worked weeks a year, allows for 5.8 weeks annual leave in line with private sector norms.
The hours you work are completely up to you. Some instructors work a day or two a week, others work full time. As your own boss, you chose the hours you want to work.
A word of caution here though, there will be significant pressure from learner drivers for you to work evening and weekend hours. There can be money to be made here, but only if you are willing to work antisocial hours.
It is fully your decision when you want to work.
Become a driving instructor – What is the process?
First things first, you need to apply for a PRN number, which means you need to obtain an enhanced DBS check. RPS Driven Instructor Training is on hand to guide you through the process of getting on the DVSA system and beginning the training process.
The theory test consists of a multiple choice test covering five subject areas carried out on a computer at a DVSA Theory Test Centre. There is also a Hazard Perception test which is administered immediately after the multiple choice in the same test booking.
RPS Driven Instructor Training will provide access to suitable training materials to prepare you for your ADI Part 1 test and is available for 1 on 1 support where necessary.
A one hour driving test, similar to the test you probably took when you got your licence but a lot harder. Instead of 15 driving faults, the pass mark is just 6 and the examiner will be looking for a higher standard of driving.
This is why we allow for 15 hours of one to one tuition to help your driving reach the standard required of a potential driving instructor.
Once you have passed this test and completed 40 hours of Part 3 training, you can apply for a trainee licence and begin teaching as a driving instructor yourself.
The ADI Part 3 Test of Instructional Ability involves a DVSA Enforcement Officer watching you deliver a lesson to a real life pupil. The test is centred around the 17 competencies of a driving instructor.
This is covered in detail during the 40 hours of your training and additional in car training during your trainee licence.
Instructor Training
Pay as You Go
£40.00 per hour.
Training Package
£1,850.00
Instructor Training with Steel City Driver Training.
Unlike with other driving schools, we are concerned only with getting you qualified and on the road to your new career. We would love for you to decide to join Steel City Driver Training as an Approved Driving Instructor, but we aren’t going to force that decision on you until we’ve proven what we can do for you.
Major driving schools are constantly playing with the formula for how to train an instructor. Some have gone to Virtual Reality for their training. Others have developed the truly alarming concept of teaching an instructor via webcam; not classroom stuff, actual on the road training via cameras and the internet.
Its bonkers frankly.
At Steel City Driver Training we feel that for this task, the old ways are the best. Your training will be 1 to 1 and in car for as much of the time as possible. It will also be scheduled to fit in with your other commitments.* You can learn intensively in a week, or you can learn over time. We work for you and with you to reduce the impact of your training on your life.
* Subject to trainer availability. If your availability is constrained it may involve a wait while a trainer becomes available at a time which matches you.
We take a look at the Controlled Stop, or Emergency Stop, manoeuvre which you may be asked to complete on your driving test.
