Instructor training is about more than teaching the students to shift gears, use the mirror and read the road signs. A good instructor is more a teacher, a mentor, and sometimes a therapist. There’s no second chances when it comes to navigating the first time, student new drivers arrive with bags of nerves. One placing his/her hands on the steering wheel as if it owes him/her some money. A student stuck at a roundabout. It’s the instructors’ job to provide practical ways to handle both situations patiently. Many successful instructors began their journey with structured training, making this the perfect time to get started.

Communication skill is an integral part of a good programme. Knowing how to drive isn’t enough. How to say it in a way that everyone can understand is another tale. The most complicated acts have to be broken down into small steps by the instructor. The phrase Check your mirror, signal then move, it sounds very basic. Taking the right time, one word can turn your inner feelings of insecurity into confidence. Timing? It’s real. There’s a place for silence too.

The other essential element is risk awareness. Teachers have the capacity to recognize any possible difficulties early. They can look at the traffic and infer driver conduct and anticipate wrong turns. This is a game of chess on wheels. One of the moves can be seen by the learner. The number five is a common number with an experienced teacher. This perception keeps lessons calm and productive – not chaotic.

Road skills are not the sole important skills. Each learner has distint patterns, fears and capabilities. Some need to be encouraged while others are told. Now an all encompassing solution is not feasible. Future teachers harness practice to acquire the skill to modulate their teaching style during training. The objective is to move students forward without them choking. Have some fun too. Laughter signals a relaxed learner and a nervous learner is quick to laugh.

Besides new technologies some other third-level topics are traffic regulations, lesson planning and professional behaviour. A teacher must always be up to date with the traffic regulations and the test. Another topic is planning lessons which produce a step by step increase of ability. They aim to transform a learner, who has had a doubtful first time driving a car, into a confident driver himself. You can’t teach a man to swim by a chucking in the water. The great teachers of driving are with their learnees in the water and support the learner to make a step in a learning process, mile by mile.