PETE WILKINSON: ADI Vistaprint helps driving school From a Military Training Instructor, to an Approved Driving Instructor, to a familar face on our small screens – Pete Wilkinson, from Yes! School of Motoring Ltd, speaks to The Instructor about his ever-growing career with the help of VistaPrint 1 You recently retired from the Army – so why become a driving instructor? Whilst in the Army, my trade was Military Training Instructor so I gained a multitude of Instructional qualifications in various subjects. During this time I also gained a high level of people management skills which enables me to work out what makes a person tick and how to get the best out of them as an individual. Put this together with the fact that I enjoy driving and it’s a no-brainer. I enjoy instruction/coaching/ mentoring and I enjoy driving. Did you have to make any adjustments through the transition of roles? I finished in the Army as a Regimental Sergeant Major so I was used to people doing as I wanted them to do. I like to think that they wanted to do it for me because of the working relationships which were built up. The same people skills were invaluable when moving to ‘civi street’ because people don’t need to ‘do as thay are told’. Being a Regimental Sergeant Major means nothing to a civilian so the personality has to win them over. You set up YES! Driving School – what made you set up on your own, rather than work for a driving school franchise? I didn’t set up YES! Driving School, but co-set up YES! School of Motoring. It was actually set up by Ruedi Preiss. When I joined, he had a couple of others franchising with him. Initially I franchised with him, intending to stay for 12 months and ‘grow my own pupil tree’. The intention was then to start my own brand and get my own branded cars on the road and grow my own school. However, after around 7 months, Ruedi invited me to go into business with him and form YES! School of Motoring Ltd (as opposed to YES! Driving School). I recognised that Ruedi really knew what he was doing and that ‘YES!’ was a really strong brand which would create a great presence. Ruedi shares the same thirst and vision and so it was an easy decision to accept his offer. THE INSTRUCTOR l 2 4 3 You set up ‘last minute lessons’ on your website, what was your thinking behind this scheme? The idea behind the ‘last minute lessons’ is that if an instructor has a cancellation then he has the opportunity to fill that time slot and not totally lose out. He can contact his other pupils and offer the slot up. The pupil gets an extra session and the instructor still gets paid. However, our instructors are generally so busy that they may decide to simply take a break in the diary if they get a cancellation. You also offer your students rewards for driving well, or passing with 0 faults, what encouraged you to give something back to your students, and how is this received? YES! Instructors are all great instructors so motivation and promotion of the desire to learn is not normally a problem. However, the offer of £500 for a ‘zero fault’ test report is always an initial attraction and an added incentive to apply the learning between each training session and not just wait for next weeks session. 5 www.ukdic.co.uk