Thursday 3 January 2008

Red Driving Instructor Training TV adverts

Yep - they're back!!!

The Instructor College always used to be linked to Red Driving School, and were the only people advertising on TV, so I'm gonna make a big assumption (possibly a mistake - correct me if I'm wrong guys) and suggest that it's the same company, just a different name on the adverts.

Well the search engine queries have all started up again:

  • How much does a driving instructor earn
  • Driving instructor training prices

and one of the more worrying ones:

  • learner instructor £30k tv ads

(lets face it, if you can't search for something with a little more finesse than that, you may not be able to communicate well enough under pressure to be a competent driving instructor.)

So, we come back to the same old questions of whether there are too many ADIs out there, and whether you can earn £30k as a driving instructor.

In response to the "too many ADIs" statement that always gets bandied around - well there's no shortage, but like anything else - if you're good enough you'll get work.

In response to the next question, I'm actually gonna change my answer:

No, you can't earn £30k as a driving instructor while working a normal week.

If all you want to do is instruct people how to drive - you probably won't be able to consistently clear £30k after expenses and before tax. However easy the salesperson with a few figures on a whiteboard or in a glossy brochure suggests it may be - the reality is that there are very very few driving instructors who earn this much. Those who do certainly don't conform to a 9 to 5 work pattern.

However - if you're prepared to be a business person, a coach, a trainer and use your skills and imagination - you can earn this and more.

Consider fleet training - you should earn around £120 a day before tax even when working for someone else. That's a 9-5 job (ish) which earns around £600/week if you can get the work. There's your £30k straight up.

Consider getting your own business training - fleet, or specialist. Now you can charge £300+ per day, but you've got bigger overheads, but if you're really good you could be working 4 days a week, and if you have a free receptionist (partner or suchlike) you could bring in £1200 a week.

Suddenly you're earning £60k a year.

And finally, consider ADI training You can charge £4000 for a course that has overheads of around £400, and takes around 80 hours to deliver - often at a ratio of 2 trainees to 1 trainer. This means that in 2 weeks you should effectively turn around 2 trainees, at a gross profit of £3600 each.

Suddenly you're earning enough to start advertising on TV!!!! (after doing the math, and having 4 weeks off a year, you should be getting around £140,000!)

The training colleges would have a problem with my math here, in the same way that I would have a problem with theirs!

Just a word of advice to all thinking of training - do the research on the forums and at the websites mentioned in the sidebar to the right.

Don't hand over any cash until you know what you want and are certain you are going to get it.

Driving instructor training shouldn't need to cost the earth, and having a successful career shouldn't mean penury for ever, but it's not as easy as it seems in the adverts. The exams take hard work and dedication, and even when (if? the overall pass rate for completing all 3 ADI exams is around 7%) you pass, you may find that what you think is a job at the end of a course is only a franchise, and no guarantee of earnings.

http://www.adiforum.co.uk/

http://www.drivertrainingtoday.co.uk/

2 comments:

Paul said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
The Undercover ADI said...

Paul - your name links directly to the site which you say your "son" trained with. You then actively link directly to their site.
This looks suspiciously like someone plugging their own company, or one they work for.
The Undercover ADIs will only recommend companies who we have contact with in some shape or form - the company you are advertising has not contacted us in any way and may not wish to be affiliated with us (many do not!).
We would ask any commenters not to plug companies who they work for - you will do yourselves more harm than good as it just makes you look like shameless scammers - which is the main problem.

We would advise that in the current climate people should NOT hand over any cash to ANY instructor training company befoer you have FULLY researched them.

There's a lot of companies out there who want your £3k and who may not be able to put you in the small minority of people who pass the qualification examinations.

BEWARE.