Tuesday 19 February 2008

Driving Instructor CPD (and tangentially DIDU)

Yep, the subject is really getting people hot under the collar right now, which probably means that something is being done.

Unfortunately it's probably being done behind the scenes, unless you're a DIDU member apparently - they tell all their members what is happening, and have more meetings with the DSA than any other association or union........I pity the DSA!

To be serious for one minute though, I don't really understand why the other associations can't do the same thing and publish stuff - yeah, it would confuse the hell out of your average ADI and they'd get really riled up and shouty (have you seen the forums recently?) and then realise that actually it wasn't that bad after all. Please - give us more information - we want to be given the chance to be indignant!

It would be good to have the information published widely and not just in links to the DIDU forum guys - if you just say you are members of DIDU in your signature and publish the information openly on the non-affiliated forums - people might appreciate the openness, be impressed by the quality of the information and join up, but all the underhand sniping just makes the rest of us even more wary of you.

(Apologies to a couple of the very genuine members, who do give good and accurate information, but there's a few of your members who remind me of Citizen Smith - a lot of mouth, but with very little brain.)

Anyhoooooo! Back to CPD......

Should it be mandatory?

The one statement from the forums I really liked was one of the regular contributors (you know who you are!) who suggested that it would be terrible if it was made mandatory, leaving it voluntary allows those of us who do CPD regularly to differentiate ourselves from those who can't be bothered!

I know there are problems with the idea of whether "doing a course" will make any instructor better and because of this I don't just "do a course". I plan my future career - I dream about what I would love to be doing in 5 years and I pursue it. This nearly always means taking some form of structured training alongside hours of personal study and practise.

Many of the guys seem to feel that by studying alone they can progress and to an extent they're right. Many of the guys feel that by combining that study with peer review and discussion on the forums they can progress.

Again, to an extent they're right.

But could you really learn and understand a new language by studying books, tv programmes, dvds, the internet and by logging in to http://www.teachingyourselftospeakalanguagewhichyougetnochancetorealisticallyandpracticallyputintoeffectineverydaylife-forum.com/?

I don't like things being made mandatory, but the fact is that this isn't personal - this is an industry wide thing. With the wide angle specs on I can see that if sensitively implemented (that could be another post in itself, but recent info seems to be that the DSA may have learnt from the mistakes of the past) there is no doubt that the base standard will rise.

The fact is - practical training with people who have superior skills can have a massive effect on your progression - something that doesn't sink in even after months of personal study can become clear in an instant when you're with someone who really does understand what they're on about and who can communicate that clearly.

You would have thought that people doing our job would understand this.