Working as a driving instructor can be an incredibly rewarding and challenging experience. If you're considering taking this career path, here are a couple of tips which should help you to become a capable and successful instructor.

Seek out an excellent training course

The quality of the training you receive will play a huge role in how successful you are as a driving instructor. If the leaders on the course you take fail to offer comprehensive training, which encompasses everything you need to know, you may struggle to deliver adequate levels of instruction to your students and may make errors which could affect your professional reputation.

As such, it is crucial to do your research and seek out a reputable driving instructor training course. Ideally, the course you take should include not only the basics, such as how to encourage safe driving behaviours and how to identify, analyse and resolve driving mistakes, but it should also cover some of the important parts of running a business as an instructor, such as how to provide excellent customer service.

Keeping your vehicle in excellent condition

Most driving instructors use vehicles with dual-operator controls so that they can operate the clutch or the brake from the passenger seat if the person they are teaching is struggling and requires assistance with the driving process.

To ensure your own safety and the safety of the people you instruct, it is absolutely essential that the vehicle you use for your lessons be in excellent condition at all times. If you fail to take good care of your car, the consequences could be disastrous.

For example, if, whilst stuck in traffic on a busy motorway, your student panics and accidentally presses down on the accelerator, you would need to be able to operate the brake to prevent them from colliding with the vehicle in front. If the dual controls are not functioning as they should, you might not be able to stop the car. In this situation, the malfunctioning dual controls could result in a collision and a pile-up, which, in turn, could result in several people being injured.

As such, you should have the car you use for your lessons serviced on a regular basis. Additionally, it's sensible to check that its dual control system is fully functional before each lesson; if you discover a fault, do not continue with the lesson. Instead, postpone it until after the defect has been repaired.

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