{"id":20671,"date":"2017-01-08T15:02:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T15:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=20671"},"modified":"2023-01-09T10:56:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T10:56:35","slug":"how-long-does-it-take-to-become-an-adi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=20671","title":{"rendered":"How Long Does It Take To Become An ADI?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"LearnerI covered this years ago when the blog was still young! It was around the time of the last big rush of people wanting to become driving instructors. You might also want to take a look at my longer article, Should I Become a Driving Instructor?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, I pointed out that the current climate is ideal for new ADIs because there\u2019s a lot of work around. However, being metaphorical about it for a moment, a summer is always followed by a winter. Brexit is effectively the autumn which will develop into a nuclear winter \u2013 one that\u2019s likely to take hold within the next couple of years, and which will last for an entire generation or even longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I digress. Someone found the blog today with the search term \u201chow long does it take to get adi badge [sic]\u201d. Maybe I shouldn\u2019t read between the lines, but whoever asked that seems to be thinking about it all wrong. It comes across as being purely about getting money, not least because someone who is serious about becoming an ADI would already have an idea of what is involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to pass three exams to become an ADI: a theory test (Part 1), a test of your driving ability (Part 2), and a test of your teaching ability (Part 3). Putting aside the work involved to pass them, you could book a theory test for some time in the next few weeks. Then you\u2019d be free to book the Part 2 test, which could be a few weeks later. Finally, you\u2019d be free to book the Part 3, which could be a few weeks after that. In an ideal world, you could<\/strong> pass all three parts within a couple of months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, though, the waiting time for the Part 2 and Part 3 tests is likely to be anything up to 2-3 months depending on where you live (in some places it may be more). So realistically, even if you pass each one at your first attempt \u2013 and you can\u2019t book the next stage until you\u2019ve passed the previous one – you\u2019d need about 6-7 months just to fit them all in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time I looked, the pass rate even for Part 1 was shockingly low at around 50%. Part 2 was also around 50%, and Part 3 was around 35%. You can only have a maximum of three attempts at either Part 2 or Part 3 within two years of passing Part 1, otherwise you have to go through all three parts again once the two years are up. I\u2019ve gone through this calculation before, but if 100 people start out intending to become ADIs, using these pass rate figures as a worst case, only 50 of them will go on to take Part 2, only 25 will take Part 3, and ultimately only 9 out of the original 100 will succeed in getting their green badge. I stress that this is a worst case scenario, but it isn\u2019t that far off the reality. Becoming an ADI is not an easy ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who are successful are unlikely to pass all three tests first time. They might, of course, but most don\u2019t. If the wait for Parts 2 and 3 tests in your area is 3 months, each additional attempt will add a further three months to your overall qualifying period. Even if someone passes Part 1 (which can be taken an unlimited number of times), if they end up having three attempts at both Parts 2 and 3 (which is not uncommon) then the overall qualification period will be over 18 months absolute minimum. If they fail three times within the two year window, they have to wait until the window closes before doing the whole thing all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those pass rates are the result of a combination of the ability of people taking the tests and the difficulty of the tests per se.<\/em> The fact that they\u2019re so low should be a strong indication of how much work is involved getting up to test standard, and also of the risks any prospective ADI is taking in choosing to embark on training where there is potentially<\/strong> a greater than 90% chance of failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That risk needs to be considered when you look at how much it is going to cost you to qualify. At the time of writing, the Part 1 test costs \u00a381, and Parts 2 and 3 cost \u00a3111 each. Every new prospective ADI assumes that they<\/strong> will only take one attempt at each test and end up paying \u00a3300 to qualify – even though the statistics strongly suggest otherwise. One attempt at Part 1, and a more realistic three attempts at each of the others would end up costing about \u00a3750. Most people will end up spending closer to this for their tests than the lower figure. But this is just the cost of the testing, remember, and you\u2019re going to need at least 40 hours of Part 3 training (likely to be charged at \u00a330-\u00a335 per hour, possibly more) and let\u2019s say 10 hours for Part 2 (ditto). That adds up to around \u00a31,700 for training on top of test fees, and even this is a bare minimum. Assuming you can pass without much training is fine when you\u2019re signing along the dotted line to apply to be entered on to the register, but once your test is looming most people suddenly realise their naivet\u00e9 and end up postponing it or wasting one of their three lives. Either way, they have to pay for more training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s impossible to say definitely how much money you\u2019ll end up spending \u2013 you may be one in a milion who literally does it for \u00a3300 \u2013 but the vast majority will end up risking several thousand pounds on something with a high risk of failure. It\u2019ll take at least 6 months to pass, but probably up to a couple of years. And if you fail, the money and time are both gone \u2013 there are no refunds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your problems don\u2019t end there, though. If you qualify, you\u2019re going to have to get a car, insurance, and dual controls. If you were the one who asked the question I quoted earlier, then there\u2019s a good chance that you\u2019re the kind of person who is going to want to do everything on the cheap, so you won\u2019t be on the road teaching the next day while you squirrel away trying to get a car. Furthermore, passing Part 3 doesn\u2019t come with a full diary of pupils \u2013 when you decided to become an ADI you probably thought \u201cOooh! \u00a325 times 40 hours equals money, money, money,\u201d and no further than that. Now, and if you\u2019re lucky, a couple of relatives or friends will have asked you to teach their kids. Assuming you\u2019re not \u2018doing someone a favour\u2019 (let\u2019s be honest: they probably expect it, and so you probably are), these will be worth about \u00a31,800 in turnover over four months. I can almost see the spinning reels of \u00a3 signs in your eyes, but this money will have to cover your overheads, so you\u2019ll be left with maybe \u00a31,100 before tax (and scaling it up, it works out to an annual<\/strong> salary of well under \u00a3300 \u2013 yes, three hundred). So, you\u2019re going to need tons more work \u2013 you need something like 30 hours a week to earn a living wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have gained an Oscar Nomination from your family for passing Part 3, but the rest of the world doesn\u2019t give a damn. They\u2019ve got hundreds of other ADIs to choose from, and they\u2019re not going to be queuing outside your house. You\u2019re going to have to build up slowly \u2013 certainly more slowly than your initial plan might have allowed for. It could take 6 months to two years to get a stable pupil base, and even then you will have to keep working at it otherwise it could all disappear almost overnight. One way or another, that\u2019s going to cost money (or time, which in business is still money anyway). And a huge number of people fail miserably on this business side of the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In summary, it could take two years to qualify, and a further two years to establish yourself. You might do it quicker, but you\u2019d be crazy to assume that and risk capital on it. Far more likely is that you might not qualify at all, and even if you did you might still fail in business. You must allow for that. And if you\u2019re just going to be doing it for the money you think you can earn, do yourself a favour and forget about it right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n