ADI Competency Profile Development

RED assisted the DSA in the development of a competency framework for Approved Driving Instructors and undertook a series of stakeholder workshops and survey activities to validate the framework for use in benchmarking and continuous professional development.

The Driving Standards Agency is a trading fund whose purpose is to help reduce deaths of drivers and riders in the UK. As part of this they have a commitment for the provision of registered and supervised quality assured instructors.

As part of this commitment, the DSA wished to develop a competency framework that clearly expressed the skills, attributes and knowledge that Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs) should possess. The resulting framework will act as the benchmark for levels of competency in the driving instruction profession and support ongoing Continuous Professional Development of registered instructors.

RED was asked to undertake the development of the competency framework and to engage with stakeholders across the learning to drive profession in order to validate the approach. A survey of 80,000 instructors was used to establish the baseline for the framework, understand demographics and to establish key training needs.

Psychometric profiles for idealised instructors were developed and this allowed the development of required skill-sets and competency levels for instructors at each stage of their training and delivery. Key to the approach was the desire to engage the industry to promote the concept of a baseline standard and on-line modular training in support of Continuous Professional Development.

A number of industry workshops were used to support validation and including representatives from across the driving and training professions and including emergency services, freight and commercial driving organisations. They key objective of the workshops was to engage the industry in the concept of a measurable competency in driving instruction with Continuous Professional Development.