Newslink May

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I love the challenge of finding out
what works best for my pupils
A Q&A with South
East ADI Neil
Palmer looks at
motivating
pupils – and the
genius of
Brian Clough
When did you become an ADI, and
what made you enter the profession?
I qualified as an ADI in October 2016.
Previously, I was a lecturer at the local
Further Education college for over 20
years, but was looking for a way out. My
daughter was 17 at the time, and I took
her out for extra practice while she was
learning to drive.
I soon realised that I enjoyed it and it
was my chance to change career. I love it
and haven’t looked back since.
What’s the best bit about the job?
Meeting and working with a wide
range of people and the challenge of
working out what works best for each
pupil in terms of their motivations,
learning styles and personality so that
they can achieve their goal.
And the worst?
When your car lets you down, or a taxi
driver crashes into your pupil while they
are on their test, as happened a couple
of years ago!
What’s the best piece of training advice
you were ever given?
To use whatever teaching and learning
methods you can to help a pupil get
something that they may initially be
struggling with.
What one piece of kit, other than your
car and phone, could you not do without?
In the last year or so, my glasses.
Sadly, I’ve got to that age where I now
need them!
What needs fixing most urgently in
driving generally?
The quality of road surfaces to reduce
the number of potholes. Repairing the
roads properly so that the same potholes
do not appear again every winter.
What should the DVSA focus on?
Easy... reduce waiting time for
tests!
What’s the next big thing to
transform driver training/testing?
Electric vehicles. I think we will all
have to be teaching in electric vehicles
within the next 10-15 years.
Electric cars – yes or no? And why?
Yes, just because it’s inevitable and
will have to be embraced by all of us, if
we haven’t already done so.
How can we improve driver testing/
training in one move?
Better communication between the
DVSA and driving instructors at both
national and local levels.
Who/what inspires you, drives you on?
The enjoyment and satisfaction of helping
people to achieve their goal of gaining
their driving licence, which can then
contribute to increasing their opportunities
for an improved quality of life.
What keeps you awake at night?
Nothing really; I sleep soundly!
No one is the finished article. What do
you do to keep on top of the game?
Reflect on things within lessons that
have gone well, or have not gone well, so
that I can do it better or achieve a better
outcome next time.
Also, attend local MSA GB events –
and read Newslink, of course!
What’s the daftest /most dangerous
thing that’s ever happened to you while
teaching?
Daft: When ‘Show me how to use the
horn’ was the question at the start of the
test, and it didn’t work, so the test was
abandoned before it even got started!
Dangerous: Pupils trying to go the
wrong way around a roundabout.
When or where are you happiest?
With family, on a cruise or at the races.
If you had to pick one book/film/album
that inspires, entertains or moves you,
what would it be?
Not much of a reader, but I support
Nottingham Forest and read Brian
Clough’s autobiography a few years back.
He was brilliant at managing people
and getting the best out of them.
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