The subject of the recession and how it affects the driving instruction profession is much debated. In fact a recent TV documentary claimed that driving instructors were hard hit by the recession. The problem with this view in my opinion is that is was hardly a fair survey.
Over the last few months we, as always have been closely monitoring all of our driving instructors and their workloads and in general we have found them to be as busy as ever...let me explain why.....
Firstly I won't argue the point that in some ways the recession has hit this profession. The truth is that every industry is affected in one way or another by the economic downturn. We have found that some pupils have reduced the amount of driving lessons they take each week or month. Some have even postponed lessons all together. So why are our driving instructors busy?
Our findings are simple. Although some pupils have reduced/stopped their lessons we are seeing a huge increase in learners from elsewhere - job seekers. Not so long ago, people tended to work close to their home. People have always commuted but in recent times people are often having to travel further and further to find work. Small towns have not got the level of jobs that they used to have and people are having to travel to larger towns and cities to gain employment.
We recently advertised for an admin assistant in our office. Within 24 hours of placing the advert we received more than 150 applicants - this shows the amount of unemployed out there. If you could either go on the dole or find a poorly paid job locally but travel to the nearest city and find a better paid job what would you do?
Public transport in this country is...well poor to say the least and so more and more people who wouldn't normally learn to drive are finding that they really need to and these pupils are replacing the ones that are cutting back their hours.
So why did the documentary on the TV claim that driving instructors were short of work?
Well I think this is down to the fact that when they surveyed instructors they took a small random selection of local independent one man band driving instructors. Now don't get me wrong, generally the good independent instructors who are long established tend to do very well. This is because they generate most of their work by word of mouth. Sadly in these times they do tend to be struggling because it isn't the word of mouth pupils who are having the regular lessons - it's the ones who are looking for work. Many graduates are looking to learn to drive - often these people are living in towns different to where they grew up and so they don't use the driving instructor that all of their family have used. Instead they seek one from adverts.
All driving instructors have the potential to be busy but I feel that now, more than ever it is important that driving instructors place themselves with a good driving school. A driving school that is not too big charging over the top prices, but one that is big enough to pump the required funding into advertising so that they can ensure that they have a presence in the market place and generate pupils.
To summarise - is this a recession proof profession? I think that the people who are looking to learn to drive for the fun of it are thinking twice, but for many people learning to drive is fastly becoming an essential thing to do and so in my opinion good driving schools have always done very well and will continue to do so.
If you are thinking of a career as a driving instructor why not check out our website at www.keydrivertraining.co.uk where you can find out more about our company, nationwide courses and life as a driving instructor.
If you are looking for driving lessons, go to a driving school you can trust - for a nationwide service check out www.keydrivingschool.co.uk.
Over the last few months we, as always have been closely monitoring all of our driving instructors and their workloads and in general we have found them to be as busy as ever...let me explain why.....
Firstly I won't argue the point that in some ways the recession has hit this profession. The truth is that every industry is affected in one way or another by the economic downturn. We have found that some pupils have reduced the amount of driving lessons they take each week or month. Some have even postponed lessons all together. So why are our driving instructors busy?
Our findings are simple. Although some pupils have reduced/stopped their lessons we are seeing a huge increase in learners from elsewhere - job seekers. Not so long ago, people tended to work close to their home. People have always commuted but in recent times people are often having to travel further and further to find work. Small towns have not got the level of jobs that they used to have and people are having to travel to larger towns and cities to gain employment.
We recently advertised for an admin assistant in our office. Within 24 hours of placing the advert we received more than 150 applicants - this shows the amount of unemployed out there. If you could either go on the dole or find a poorly paid job locally but travel to the nearest city and find a better paid job what would you do?
Public transport in this country is...well poor to say the least and so more and more people who wouldn't normally learn to drive are finding that they really need to and these pupils are replacing the ones that are cutting back their hours.
So why did the documentary on the TV claim that driving instructors were short of work?
Well I think this is down to the fact that when they surveyed instructors they took a small random selection of local independent one man band driving instructors. Now don't get me wrong, generally the good independent instructors who are long established tend to do very well. This is because they generate most of their work by word of mouth. Sadly in these times they do tend to be struggling because it isn't the word of mouth pupils who are having the regular lessons - it's the ones who are looking for work. Many graduates are looking to learn to drive - often these people are living in towns different to where they grew up and so they don't use the driving instructor that all of their family have used. Instead they seek one from adverts.
All driving instructors have the potential to be busy but I feel that now, more than ever it is important that driving instructors place themselves with a good driving school. A driving school that is not too big charging over the top prices, but one that is big enough to pump the required funding into advertising so that they can ensure that they have a presence in the market place and generate pupils.
To summarise - is this a recession proof profession? I think that the people who are looking to learn to drive for the fun of it are thinking twice, but for many people learning to drive is fastly becoming an essential thing to do and so in my opinion good driving schools have always done very well and will continue to do so.
If you are thinking of a career as a driving instructor why not check out our website at www.keydrivertraining.co.uk where you can find out more about our company, nationwide courses and life as a driving instructor.
If you are looking for driving lessons, go to a driving school you can trust - for a nationwide service check out www.keydrivingschool.co.uk.
