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Driving Instructors Scottish Council
Lanarkshire Driver Trainers Association
Welcome to the West Lothian Driving Instructors Association Website
Welcome to the online newsletter for all Driver Trainers (ADIs, PDIs, cars, motorbikes, lorries or coaches)
who live or work in the West Lothian area.
The function of the WLDIA (and therefore by extension this website) is to keep our members informed of:-
- Feedback and information from the DSA staff at Bathgate DTC that affect us as instructors
- Information and feedback from DISC and the DSA at a national level
- Things happening in our working area that can affect us
- Things happening in the driving instruction industry as a whole
- Things happening in the motoring field in general
- Our schedule of meetings and social event
If you are not a member and are unsure if it is worth your while, have a look at this link, and feel free to have a look around the site to see what we are up to and about.
This page was most recently updated on 30/03/2012
Meetings
The March meeting went ahead with a slightly disappointing
attendance. The main part of the meeting was the formal adoption of the
constitution, which is available through the
"Essential Documents" navigator to the left.
All members are asked to read this document if you were not at the
meeting. Minutes of the meeting are available here, or via the Document
Archive link on the left.
It was decided to restructure the joining process by introducing a new one off
joining fee PLUS the annual subscription, anyone who renews membership between
the AGM and the next meeting (usually March) will not have to repay the joining
fee, just the annual membership, however anyone who leaves it more than 3 months
will have to rejoin and pay the one off fee. As this is a new thing we have
agreed to grant an extra month to allow anyone who has not yet rejoined time to
do so. By the end of March 2012 we were back at close to 80 members, from 55 at
the March meeting.
The next full meeting of the association is Monday June 4th at 7pm in Deans Community High School, Livingston. Any guest speakers and proposed agenda for this meeting will be detailed on this website soon.
Roadworks throughout Bathgate
The bridge at Bathgate Water is now reopened after many weeks of mayhem in the temporary one way street process. The new traffic lights at the bottom of North Bridge Street) were causing a bit of havoc initially, but now that the line painting is complete this looks like it will settle down. Hopefully this will be the end of serious problems. It appear that the new roundabout on Whitburn road, providing a third entrance to Wester Inch Village, is progressing well, and I would expect that to the the next significant road works in the town.
Training - Dyslexia
The Dyslexia Awareness training, run by Linda Kerr of Dyslexia Scotland was very successful. On Board Training we are now hosting a PDA (Professional Development Award) Level 8, HND in Working with Dyslexic People in the Work and Training Environments, the price of which will be £250 and it is scheduled to start in May 2012. If you are interested in attending this please let Brian Smith or Ray Lynch know as soon as possible. Note, this will be run and assessed by East Kilbride college, so you will be able to use your ILA Scotland funding of £200 per year to pay for part of this course, meaning that it is effectively only £50 to you!! To find out about how to get an ILA Scotland grant towards your training follow the Funding for Training link in the main navigator.
Dyslexia Scotland are compiling a directory of Driving Instructors who have had special educational needs training and we are working at doing the same for those with Autism Awareness Training, so hopefully your training will be worthwhile.
Training - BTEC Level 4, Coaching in Driver Education
Brian Smith is also preparing to host the Tri-Coaching partnership when they bring their BTEC Level 4 Coaching in Driver Education course to Scotland. Be aware that Brian is not personally making any money on this course, simply he attended it himself last year, feels it is a worthwhile course and is bringing it to Scotland for our benefit. It is very encouraging to see that CPD Training is being brought to Scotland, rather than Scottish instructors being expected to travel to England with the often substantial additional costs of travel and accommodation to be found. Click this link to download the course information leaflet.
Training - GDE Matrix
DISC have provided us with a number of presentations provided by eDriving solutions. The first of these is on the GDE Matrix, one of the "buzzwords" that floats round in the trade press an awful lot these days, often linked with coaching and "Client Centred approaches". Ray Lynch is willing to deliver this presentation if enough people want to attend. There will be no charge for members to attend this presentation, non members will be £3.50. The date for this is Monday 16th April 2012 at 7pm and the venue will be Deans Community High School. Please let Ray Lynch know via text on 07711 336452 if you want to attend this, there are already about 15 people planning to attend
DSA publishes Driver Training Standards Document.A new framework setting out the key competences expected of driving instructors and motorcycle trainers has been published by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). This can almost be interpreted as our "Job Description".
The National Driver/Rider Training Standard™ sets out the skills, knowledge and understanding required to deliver driver and rider training programs for cars, light vans and motorcycles, both before and after a candidate has passed their test.
The standard sets out what instructors need to be able to do, and the knowledge they need to have, in order to deliver effective learning that will help people to become and remain safe and responsible drivers. This covers areas such as devising effective lesson plans, understanding different learning styles and needs, and giving clear instructions and constructive feedback. The document builds on DSA’s existing National Driving and Riding Standards that help to define safe and responsible driving and motorcycling.
The document can be found by following this link, or through the Document Archive link in the main navigator
Four Day Weather Forecast for Livingston area
If, like many drivers, you find car insurance premiums expensive, this article is for you. Here, we discuss various ways of reducing your car insurance policy.
Many factors influence the price of your car insurance premiums. Some, such as the driver’s age, you have no control
over. Other factors, such as the model of the car
you drive, the level of security the car has (both in terms of the degree to which it protects the driver, any passengers, and pedestrians, but also in
terms of the level or protection against theft), the number of miles driven, and the level of insurance, can be tweaked in order to reduce the cost of
insurance. Several factors determine the
insurance group to which a particular car belongs. Many people believe that the older the car, the cheaper the insurance. However, this is not necessarily the truth. Insurers
calculate the cost of insurance according to perceived risk, and while a newer car is more likely to be stolen, and older car is less reliable in an accident,
and differences in insurance may reflect the enhanced security features of a newer model, which means that newer cars may attract cheaper premium rates.
The following widgets bring the latest news from the DSA direct to this page
If you are looking for a driving instructor in the area and have been brought to this page by a search engine,
please see the Directory page for a listing of all our members. All offer high quality driving tuition.
Any comments with regard to the content of this page, please
refer them to: WLDIA Webmaster
Insurance
The following is a sponsored article.
You can reduce car insurance premiums, in relation to the model of car driven, by adding safety features to the car; such as a Thatchum Alarm/immobiliser, tracking devices, and locking wheel
nuts. The more up-to-date the security, the less of a risk in the eyes of the insurance company, and consequently, the cheaper the cost of insurance.
A car insurance quote will also increase or decrease depending on the amount of voluntary excess the policyholder is prepared to pay in the event of a claim.
Voluntary access, rather than a payment made directly by the policyholder, is taken from the overall amount of the claim. For instance, if your claim is worth £4000, and you have stated a
voluntary excess of £250, you will receive £3750, rather than the full amount. If you believe you are a safe driver, and are unlikely to crash, then increasing voluntary excess
can be a great way to save money.
Latest information from the DSA
Information for Driving Instructors
General News from the DSA
The WLDIA advises all learners to be very careful booking any driving test through ANY other website, as you may
end up paying a lot more
for your test than you need to.
DIRECT.GOV/MOTORING
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