Role & Workplace:
Step 2 - Workplace
Watch the two videos below, read the notes and complete the project.
The most important aspect of any workplace is SAFETY. This is especially the case in training when your classroom weighs anything up to one-and-a-half tons and hurtles along at speeds of up to 70 mph!
The safety of all road users, including your customers and yourself, must never be jeopardised during training. The ideal way to achieve this would be to do all the training in an off-road environment – but if we did this, learners would never acquire the skills needed to cope with everyday roads and traffic.
With the points above in mind you need to balance the level of risk and the learner's skill at all times when determining safe training routes and setting tasks for the learner.
Some instructors keep the car safe by using lots of instruction and taking control by pressing the dual-footbrake or grabbing the steering wheel - this might keep the car safe, but what effect do you think it has on confidence and learning?
Your task is to adjust the workplace, both in the car and on your training routes, to help customers learn the skills that will enable them to take and accept responsibility – they won't achieve this if you take the responsibility away from them by being over-protective with regard to the learning environment. Equally, however, they won't learn if the risks are too great and they are 'out of their depth'. So how can we reconcile the need for safety at all times with the learner’s need to use initiative and to learn through 'trial and error' when appropriate?
The project below is a good starting point for your Part-Three journey and for keeping the car safe.
You will no doubt have had some experience sitting in the front passenger seat over the years, but now you need to prepare for sitting in 'the instructor's seat'. Driving school cars don't have front passenger seats - at least during their hours of business!
It's important to remember that when you are in the front seat, you are working.
Go out and sit in the front passenger seat of your car. Imagine that you are about to give a driving lesson.
What considerations will you need to make with regard to the following:
Your seating position as an instructor
Adjusting the dual-mirror
The dual-controls
The general in car environment
Print the project worksheet to jot down any ideas that you have. (Note: doing this in the car will generate more ideas than doing it while sitting in front of the TV!) Information about saving and submitting coursework can be found on the next page.
Next: Unit 1: Questions...