"The Worst Course of All"

[SVS]

I chanced upon this public comment from Julian Smith. (Julian's the MD of RideDrive and he was reportedly the top student during his police advanced course at Chelmsford.) I thought it was interesting that he was so strongly critical about ADI training:

"I have to say that out of all the driving related activities I have ever been involved with, this one I enjoyed the least. In fact, I found it infuriating, even at times completely stupid. I am talking about the process of gaining a qualification that is required when becoming a driving instructor, the ADI badge."

This makes interesting reading

Edited by SVS on Sunday 5th January 23:05

[SVS]

Like Mike, I read it to mean that Julian was damning about the qualifying process.

7mike said:

Do you mean it's pretty damning about the qualifying process? Can't say I'm a particular fan of that either in its current form.

Since RideDrive hires ADIs, I doubt he meant to be damning about ADIs themselves. Julian used to be an active contributor to PH until a year or so ago; the articles he wrote for PH were very good. Perhaps he might chance upon this thread and comment himself.

Incidentally, I certainly praise RideDrive for the OCN-accredited bike course I did with them. It was excellent.

Edited by SVS on Monday 6th January 20:51

[SVS]

Distant, I think you've hit the nail on the head about primary school teaching vs. university lectures. The problem is that the law requires university lecturers (e.g. Julian Smith) to qualify as primary school teachers (i.e. ADIs)

Without an ADI badge, a RoSPA Diploma holder or a Police Driving School Instructor would be breaking the law to charge civilians for advanced lessons; that's nuts! Equally nuts, an ADI without an advanced qualification can claim to offer advanced lessons.

Motorcycling shows how it can be done differently. Advanced instructors can, and usually do, follow a different qualification route to L-test instructors. This seems more sensible. (Not that there aren't other issues in post-test bike training, mind you.)