Our speaker Rachel Mathie provided Rotarians and guests with a fascinating insight into the training required to become a Registered Driving Instructor.
This would normally be someone who may have changed career in later life to test their mettle on the roads and bring novice drivers through the demanding theory and driving skills procedure now required. On the 31st January Rachel became the youngest instructor in Scotland at the age of 22, which makes her achievement quite remarkable and proves its never too young to strive for your ambitions. It was her goal to become a Driving Instructor from the age of 17 when she started learning to drive with Pro Scot Driving School based in Kirkcaldy and prior to that with visits to Crail Airfield, which gave her the confidence she needed.
Needless to say Rachel passed her test a few months after her 17th birthday after which she had a 4 year wait to train as an instructor, as the requirements to qualify are you have to be 21 years old and have held a full driving license for 4 years. She started the process in December 2009 when she studied for the theory test which consists of a series of questions and hazard perception video clips. There are 100 questions which are broken into 4 Bands:- Band 1: Road Procedures Band 2: Traffic Signs and Signals, Car Control, Pedestrians and Mechanical Knowledge Band 3: Driving Test, Disability and Law Band 4: Publications and Instructional Techniques
There are 25 questions in each, where you must answer 20 in each section correct to be successful. This is different to the learner theory test as there are 50 questions with a pass mark of 43 and there is no required percentage in each section to be answered correctly. There are 15 hazard perception clips worth 5 points for every single clip and one double clip where you can score 10. Overall she had to gain 57 out of 75 points to pass in order to apply for the second part of the process. The second stage was a test on her ability as an advanced driver. This is an hour long and consists of 4 manoeuvres including a turn in the road, reverse round the corner, parallel and bay park. Also included is dual carriageway and country drive, hill starts and an emergency stop at 60mph.
Throughout the test you can only get 6 minor faults which include not checking your mirrors when required, signalling too early or too late etc. This stage is similar to the learner driving test, however they are only required to do 1 manoeuvre and can have up to 15 minor faults in a half hour drive. She thought after only driving for 4 years she wouldn’t have picked up many bad habits but that appeared wrong as she started training with Pro Scot! When her uncle took the advanced driving course she remembered some of the stories he told her about how you weren’t to come down the gears when stopping, just simply slow the car down and push the clutch in. She soon found out what he meant! Having passed the advanced driving test she was now ready to apply for her Part 3.
The final part was a test of her ability to instruct where the examiner would role play a pupil learning to drive. She continued her training with Pro Scot which was very eventful. Her first lesson training for the part 3 was very daunting and involved some hair-raising manoeuvres to simulate many situations she may find herself in with a pupil.
After she had completed 40 hours of training she qualified for a trainee badge - this is optional, but as this was her chosen career she took the opportunity to gain as much experience as possible before sitting the part 3 test. Rachel started self-employment with her franchise within Pro Scot Driving School in June last year supplying her own car and Pro Scot providing the advertisement including the website, leaflets and corporate clothing. She is hoping her recent publicity in the newspaper and an interview with Kingdom FM will generate more custom.
Rachel has taken on a very challenging career at such a young age and Rotarians wished her well for the future.
