Sunday 22 March 2015

Instructor training

Events are forcing me to actually do stuff.

I've been considering going into instructor training for a while, and have been doing so for a month or two with someone who's already someway along the road to becoming one.

With it being a one to one thing, I just charge him my standard rate for my time. He puts in between two and four hours a week with me, and I do my best to get him sitting in, free of charge, on a variety of different kinds of lesson.

But now, I've given someone a couple of refresher lessons, and she reckons she'd quite like to be an instructor herself. The situation is complicated by the fact that she has a Maltese license.

I wasn't sure about whether she could qualify to be an ADI, but she's over 21, has held a full license for more than 3 years, and her license, is an EU license. Malta is part of the European Union.

I need to formulate precisely a strategy on method, pricing, etc.

It's coalesced into a 3 pronged thing. This is a good thing I think, because it allows people in a wide variety of situations to use my services.

Without nailing down any specifics, here is what I have in mind...

Offer not one but three pricing plans.

1. Buy my time per hour for the £ X per hour.

That's what my current trainee is doing. He's passed his part two.

That need explanation of course. To become someone who can teach driving for money, you have to pass three tests, which have to be passed in strict order. : A theory test, a driving test, and a teaching test. The theory test (part one) is relatively easy if you revise assiduously. The driving test (part two) is hard. The teaching test (part three) is the main reason why only eight of every hundred driving instructor applicants go on to become fully qualified.

He's paying me by the hour. In the short term, it's an affordable way of doing things. In the long term, he may end up paying me quite a lot of money.

2. Pay £ X up front, and get unlimited hours.

I trained on this basis. My trainer offered a guarantee of passing my part two, and when I failed it (I was shitting myself! - See PIE triangle) I was able to keep attending the sessions without having to outlay further cash.

This method gives the trainee a degree of certainty, but confronts them with more formidable up front costs. I asked my mum for help, and she loaned me the money. I paid her back over the next couple of years.

3. Pay nothing up front, but be contracted to work for me as a franchisee for X months once fully qualified.

A couple of years ago, when I was struggling to make a living, I applied for a job as a bus driver. The bus company offered this sort of deal. They train me for free, but I work for them for 2 years on full pay once qualified. If I leave or get sacked, I'm liable for the full cost (a couple of grand) of training. This model might, with a bit of thought, be adaptable to my profession.

A poor instructor tells their pupils how to drive. A good instructor asks them how to drive.

Now how's that for a snappy soundbite? That's the way it is, in a nutshell though. It's a process of guided self observation, although you need to be able to provide the filler for any gaps when required.

So I'd be looking to teach several trainees at once, probably by hiring one or a couple of other instructors, and taking on a partly organisational role.

Given that I've not even had one trainee instructor pass their test  yet, this may seem a bit presumptuous, but I've been doing this for long enough now to know what I'm doing.

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running up that hill

sex has a profile. it starts slow and speeds up. geting more and more intense until it peaks with an orgasm and tails off back into langour.

This profile is duplicated in horse racing commentaries.

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Friday 20 March 2015

Eek! Lips!

Meh. Overcast. Again. At least it was during its most total minutes. Thin cloud allowed direct view before and after.

More to say later.

driving lessons in North Wirral? learn to drive in Hoylake? driving instructor in Birkenhead?