Coaching the Instructor

There have been a lot of articles regarding coaching the learner, the mis-interpretation of coaching and it's meaning and worth is incredible, the most interesting one that caught my eye was the question to a learner, what would you like to do today, that's like asking a teenager which chore they want to do. Coaching has to have boundaries to promote success, it still needs structure otherwise there can be no specific target, each learner is an individual and will have very different goals, however the driving test has a syllabus to be achieved and to do that some subjects that a learner would choose to reject have to be adhered to.

Instructor: What would you like to do today?
Learner: Not emergency stop

or

Instructor: Today we will be covering the emergency stop exercise what do you think this will involve?
Learner: Braking really quickly

The second question encourages engagement and it is from this point that the learning process can take place and be structured with the aid of the learner to achieve the target set from the learning to drive syllabus.

Positive encouragement empowers the learner, it is also the first step towards pride in achievement, learning to drive has for some become an uphill climb, with peers putting their pressure on the novice and family reminiscing about how quickly they learned to drive, the novice driver then feels pressured to run before they can walk.  Although this is not the same in all cases it is in some and that is too many.

So who encourages the ADI, fills them with enthusiasm and helps them, well in the life coaching fraternity we would have a mentor, spend time discussing with them basic client details while remaining in the confines of confidentiality. So why have the bigger organisations embraced a mentor system for employees and franchisees, because it is known to work, the mentor doesn't need to be another coach.

The mentor scheme for learner drivers has been very successful in other countries, but would it work in the UK, the majority group of learner drivers, based on research shows that learning to drive isn't taken as seriously as passing the test, the school system carries some responsibility for this as they use the test as the carrot for study, are we guilty of the same?

In one country in particularly the learner has to accrue 120 hours mandatory learner practice, the supervising driver would have taken part in a training programme themselves at their own cost, for those who do not have this aid within the family network there are volunteer programmes where someone would sit with a learner driver. For those with no opportunity to take part in either option they would be expected to have those 120 hours with a qualified instructor.  All of this supports the mentor system.

So if we are moving into client centered scenarios why are we not enforcing this type of support for the trainer and the trainee, the growth of chat rooms and forums for professional trainers, suggests a need for this face to face a question, genuinely asked would receive a better more helpful response than a query posed on a social networking site, where some would ridicule lack of knowledge.

Choosing a mentor is more difficult, it is better to be someone you are not close to, or even know well so a respectful relationship can be formed. Mentor groups for novice drivers who are looking for support outside their own personal network tend to have a more serious view when talking about driving and responsibility.

Other EU countries use a mentor system, one which I have written about before, and still fail to see how it could benefit a learner with horror stories and scare tactics. They haven't embraced the mentor for the tutor, which works well in other walks of life and in some non European countries. Of course a mentor is a chosen path but the results in areas where mentors are accepted shows greater strength in the tutor.

Mentoring systems in a classroom environment drew in level 4 of the GDE matrix, however in the UK because we have moved away from the traditional school which companies such as BSM were known for this becomes harder, the EU wish is for driving schools as opposed to individuals to become the norm is likely to be a long way off as the parliamentary process in the UK is a very slow process, with road safety figures falling to a statistically attractive figure it seems this is not so high on the agenda.