It is not an easy task to become a driving instructor. It needs certain combination of patience, skillfulness and thorough knowledge of road safety. You cannot be able to guide other people through the roads before you are personally trained to become an instructor. The way of learning the art of driving is not easy and training people to become good drivers requires a lot of expertise. Look at this!
Instructor training is based on the effective teaching strategies. Although a good driver is necessary, the actual task is to be able to show the knowledge you have in driving into a simple form that can be understood by the other people. You will be taught on how to divide complex tasks into small bits. Consider parallel parking as an example, just telling a student to park is not going to be enough. Rather, you have to take them step by step through the actions and make them confident in each successful attempt. It is your role to make what may look hard appear easy.
Another pillar of success of a driving instructor is communication skills. It is not sufficient to know the theory behind driving, it must be clear and effective in communication. All students do not learn the same way- there are those who are hands-on learners and also those who learn by listening. An experienced teacher is able to modify the way he or she teaches to meet the requirements of a specific student, and they can usually modify their teaching strategy on the fly. This demands not only a teaching skill, but also a good comprehension of human nature and the capacity to remain calm in pressure.
Being a driving instructor is not just teaching students the basics of driving but also instilling all regulations of the road and making your students responsible drivers. There are also situations when you have to assist students to relax and gain confidence through the steering wheel, not all are as in the driver seat. It is important to find a balance between instructional and motivational strategies since there are students who might be nervous or hesitant.
Moreover, being a driving teacher does not finish once you have completed your first training. Laws concerning driving are constantly being changed and innovations of safety measures are being brought out continuously. The instructors should attend regular refresher courses to keep up with the times. The inability to keep up can hamper your professional life. The aspect of continuous learning is quite crucial to the profession.
Finally, it takes much more than merely how to teach someone to pass a test in order to become a driving instructor. It is about ensuring that they get driven to be good responsible, confident and safe drivers in the long run. This profession is a very exciting and satisfying one in case you enjoy driving and are keen on assisting other people to achieve success.