You love driving, but have you the patience of a Saint?

There will always be people who want and need to learn to drive, so equally there will always be a call for professional driving instructors to teach them. Becoming a qualified Driving Instructor is not simply starting a new job, but learning the skills of a new profession which can last the rest of your working life. A good sense of humour and product knowledge are a good starting point. Can you teach a mature learner like Maureen Reece of television documentary `Driving School' fame?
You need to be patient - it's not always easy to be the perfect driver and spend your time sitting next to people who can't drive !
Not only is it a very rewarding and interesting career, but as nearly all driving instructors are self employed, there is a higher degree of freedom and flexibility than in many other professions. This should appeal to women, who are always in demand as instructors, yet only a small proportion of DSA registered instructors are female.

Changing Attitudes

In the early 80’s Britain was booming. ADIs had plenty of work. In the late 80’s and around early 90’s, the boom was followed by bust. In fact, there was a Worldwide Recession. Sadly, because ADIs are mostly self-employed, one-person businesses, many went bust due to lack of work. The boom and bust period played a key role in the way in which the driving instruction industry has developed over the past few years.
Consumer attitude and expectations have also changed. A culture of wanting a ‘quick-fix’ at the lowest possible price has also developed amongst consumers. This has undermined the values of “Safe driving for life” and is reflected in drivers attitudes and behaviour, for example, we have all seen an increase in ‘road rage’ etc.
When you take all factors into consideration, today’s ADI is faced with more commercial pressures due to the demands placed on them by consumers. For example, in the past, so-called intensive driving courses, i.e. learn to drive in a week and pass your driving test was very rare. However, due to the recession, lack of work and consumer attitude and expectations, to win new business, many ADIs were forced into providing these so-called intensive driving courses. That was the only way they could generate business. It also gave ADIs the opportunity to collect lump sum payments in advance from customers for example, by getting pupils to book a course of say 20 lessons etc. That was the only way many ADIs could survive, i.e. pay their day-to-day bills. To survive ADI's also have to work