This page will have all my trials and tribulations during my instructor training.

I was born in 1970, which as you can work out makes me 41 Years young.

It would be roughly Christmas time in 2005 that I first started thinking about becoming a driving instructor, I was slowly finding less and less enjoyment at my old place of work, and started thinking there must be more to life than a regular paid job. Maybe I was thinking the grass is always greener on the other side, maybe I felt I was destined to be rich, either way I knew it was time for a change. I sat down to talk with my wife, Julie, and between us it suddenly became crystal clear that a driving instructor would be an ideal career change, I was patient, understanding and very calm, which is very important in the career we were thinking about.

It was near the beginning of April, 2006 that I finally decided to do something about my planned career change, so I applied to the DSA for a Driving instructor starter pack.

After much soul searching and discussions with my wife and good friends, I approached Tudor Driver Education, near the beginning of September 2006, and made enquiries with them about what I need to do, to follow my now much excited dream. After talking to the owner of Tudor, Rob Clarke it became apparent that it was not as easy to pass the driving instructor exam that I had previously thought. I found that the exam consisted of three parts, part one was the theory test, part two was a test of driving ability and part three was going to be a test of driving instruction. A couple of days later I returned to see Rob and signed on the dotted line, which would include training, and help for all three parts.

I was given a phone number and name of the instructor that would be my instructor and mentor throughout my training. That person was going to be Dave Coates. With much nerves and anxiety I jumped into the unknown and rang Dave. With much relief I found Dave was very helpful and easy to talk to, and we arranged to meet up at a convienient location.

I can remember that first meeting now, I was nervous and worried, possibly because I expected Dave to say I would never be a driving instructor and maybe he might be an angry monster with two heads. Either way I was starting to panic, again much to my relief he was a normal human being with only one head, and he was very easy to talk to. On that first day we sat in his car for the whole lesson and discussed what was going to happen during my tuition and put me completly at ease. By the end of this first lesson I was told the basics of making a lesson plan and giving a briefing and was given the task of writing a lesson to introduce the cockpit drill to my "pupil" (Dave).

The next lesson with Dave was arranged for a week later. I can remember thinking at the time, how difficult this was going to be and how much commitment was going to be required from me! It was becoming apparent that this was going to be a long process that was going to require time, time and a lot of hard work.

During that week I began writing my first lesson plan, it must of taken me at least 50 attempts, and it still didn't feel right, but I suppose that was going to be the best it could be!! On the night of my next lesson I sat in Daves car and began to attempt to give him my first lesson, after about 5 minutes, Dave stopped me and began to tell me how the lesson should be presented. We agreed that Dave would give me the lesson and I would make notes on how it should be done. By the end of the lesson I was starting to understand how a lesson should be presented, but also was realising how difficult it is. I was also told of what next weeks lesson was going to be and that I should make notes for a lesson plan.

For the next 10 or so weeks, the lessons with Dave went along the lines of, I would start the lesson as best as I could than Dave would step in and help me out when I was struggling. Eventually I became better at delivering the briefing, and we worked our way through all the different lessons.

This story will be continued