Yes – Adam Bragg, Director, SmartDriving

On the whole, I’m pleased with the ORDIT update. However, its success will depend on public awareness. I particularly applaud the quotas to be registered (100% of trainers in an organisation) and the requirement for all to have achieved a Standards Check ‘Grade A’ on their last assessment, although the latter still needs attention. A fee paid Standards Check on demand (within reason) would help some instructors attain eligibility. While a ‘Grade A’ should be a ‘given’ for an instructor trainer and easily attainable by anyone contemplating a successful career, there are genuine cases of instructors having a ‘bad day’ when it comes to one-off tests so some flexibility in such a system is needed.
It is also good to see an emphasis on reflective practice – again this should be part of a ‘Grade A’ instructor’s skill set, but it may well help trainers to consider their own ‘behaviour’ by practising what they teach during instructor training programmes. The above will also be helped by bringing ORDIT in line with the 17 competencies, and alignment with the National Standards should help raise awareness of these – there are still instructors (and possibly trainers) who are not even aware that the ‘Standards’ exist, despite them being around for several years.
Whilst the whole training and testing of instructors still has deficiencies, mainly in terms of training verification, the ORDIT changes are a positive move in the right direction.

No – Mark Born, Driving Instructor Training Manager, AA/BSM

Despite the National Standards for Driver Training, the training system is still very much test focused. The new ORDIT supports a more robust assessment for trainers, which is to be welcomed. However, I feel they could have achieved much more by going beyond the main feature of ORDIT; the one-hour assessment of a single training session, completed every four years. AA Driving School & BSM Driving Instructor Training have a course that combines in-car training, online e-learning, virtual workshops, study groups, local workshops, mentoring and a whole range of resources to help develop, and support trainees through their qualification and beyond. This course has been designed to provide the very best driving instructors, both for our driving schools and the industry, by using industry examples and utilising the best practice from the UK and internationally. It is a shame the latest changes brought in by DVSA do not allow ORDIT to review, assess, advise or learn from our training course, or from other leading quality providers, to better impact the entire industry. If this were to be allowed, it would help ensure higher quality training and teaching consistency for all potential driving instructors, and uniformly better qualified driving instructors across the industry, something we would really welcome. In the meantime, we will continue to focus on what we deliver and how we can maintain and improve quality and hope others do too.