Learning to drive is a huge milestone in a young person’s life and now you don’t have to wait until your child is 17!
Kian is 16 and over the last few months I have noticed that he is taking more and more notice of how we drive, asking questions about which pedal does what and how do we know when to change gear, so when he was invited to take part in a Young Driver lesson he was really excited.
The Young Driver program is available for children and adults aged 10 and over – their oldest driver so far has been the grand old age of 84 and from the smiles on everyone’s faces after their lessons I can confirm that it is a lot of fun.
The question is why teach kids to drive early?
Research shows that early driving experience cuts road accidents by 40%. With 1 in 5 young people crashing within 6 months of passing their tests, anything that reduces accidents among this group must be a good thing.
For Kian though, this young driver experience taught him basic car safety, what all the controls do and how to drive and change gear, all without having to worry about all the other hazards that come with learning to drive on a public road.
We took part in our session at a specially designed training area at Haynes Motor Museum in Yeovil, although other sites are available all over the country. At each site you will find beginners’ zones and a full road system with traffic signs, junctions and parking zones. In this way they encourage responsible driving, not high-speed thrills and spills.
His professional driving instructor was called Ryan and was brilliant, talking Kian through everything he needed to know. They followed the Driving Standards Agency curriculum, which is exactly the same as he will learn on the road at 17, although this is broken down into age appropriate chunks.
All participants are given a Young Driver™ Drive Diary to record their progress which is signed at the end of every session by the instructor. Kian progressed to level 2 on his first session and his instructor was more than happy with his progress so far, suggesting that we go to Southampton course next as it is larger and will enable Kian to work his way further up and back down the gears.
Once we have done Southampton it was then suggested that we go to Newbury or Exeter as these courses enable the drivers to pick up more speed and have proper road markings and even traffic lights and road signs to take into account – like being on a real life road system without the inconvenience and distraction of other road users.
When Kian takes to the roads in August, when he turns 17, his new driving instructor will be able to see his level of experience, thanks to his Young Driver™ Drive Diary!
Young Driver use brand new ŠKODA cars, all fitted with dual controls. These cars are easy to drive and regularly top the charts as one of the best and most popular cars to learn in from both an instructor and learner perspective.
For an extra £20 you also have the opportunity to record their first lesson on a dashcam type device which we did with Kian. He does not want me to put it on the blog, however, it is a record of his very first driving lesson and he can go back to it time and again to help refresh his knowledge of what he learned that day.
I am definitely going to book him some more sessions during the run up to his 17th birthday in the hope it will give him a real head start and save him money on driving lessons by getting on the road sooner.
The thought of any of my kids behind the wheel is terrifying! but I agree that it would help to have some experience before official driving age and give an idea of the responsibility that comes with driving
I love this! I was lucky enough to get behind the wheel when I was in my teens. I can’t imagine learning to drive later on in life.
Young driver program sounds really interesting! I really regret that I didn’t learn to drive when I was younger! I’m sure it would make my life easier:).
Looks like an excellent idea for teenage drivers. So many pass their tests quickly after they reach 17 that they don’t have the experience. This really builds things up for them but because they’re not old enough to get a full license they know they have to be patient with things.
I think these Young Driver lessons are great – my daughter really enjoyed it when she tried it out, and I know a lot of kids who’ve loved it too. I think it can only help them to get used to being behind a wheel.
What a fantastic thing! I wish I had access to this before I was 17 years old!
This is such a brilliant scheme and I can’t believe Kian is almost 17!! Wow.
What a great idea!! I love that this is done in a controlled, safe environment so that under 17s can get some experience before they hit the roads. Lewis would love to do this!
Wow, that will be us next year! Sounds like a great course. x
What a fab idea! And such a confidence boost too, brilliant 🙂
These are fab, my son did it and really enjoyed it. It’s perfect for them to learn easily without all the road distractions.
The Young Driver program is a great idea for teaching young kids to drive, its great that it prevents accidents as well!
This is great for young drivers. What an experience!
this training program looks really complete and personalize, I’m sure your son is going to be a great driver 🙂 x
this training program looks really complete and personalized, I’m sure your son is going to be a great driver 🙂 x
This program looks brilliant and just what I need. I am 32 and dont have a licsence but with help from Admiral, hopefully they will be able to help me out. x
Sounds like a really good programme. I’m all for younger people learning. My sisters live in Australia and they both learnt at 16 years old x
This sounds like a very good program. Good to know this is available.
The young driver programme is such a fantastic idea. It really helps raise awareness as well as giving young people the head start they need
My 14-year-old had one of these lessons recently at Newcastle racecourse and she loved it. I am hoping they give her the confidence to take driving lessons as soon as she turns 17. I am going to book her more too as they were such a success x
I think it’s a great idea to start on private land first, when I first earnt to drive one of the things that made me the most nervous was being out on a real road when I had n idea which pedal was which or how to use a gear stick.
We did the Firefly driving lessons with Young Drivers recently and the kids loved it and learnt a lot about road safety too. Boo is now dying to go and have a go in a real car so I need to get that sorted for her x
This is a brilliant scheme. I have heard people advocate the idea of increasing the driving test age to 21 so people are more responsible. However this will eradicate this thought. Teaches young drivers how to be very responsible before the lessons even start. Hopefully this vastly reduce accidents between young people aged between 18-21!
Fantastic Scheme!
Modern life is more distracting than ever before, so you need to know basic driving safety and practice it constantly. Amazing post!