James is a serial endurance athlete whose story has inspired many. From a broken neck sustained playing rugby and a subsequent spiral into depression and alcoholism to ultramarathons and starring on Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, James is proof of the power of a positive mindset.

Sitting in your own driving seat

Honestly and openly sharing his story of a spiral into depression, self-medication and alcohol addiction, James will explain how a series of increasingly arduous fitness challenges proved his redemption. But this isn’t a recruitment drive to sign up for a marathon; it’s a fun and engaging session that leaves attendees with practical tips to incorporate into their everyday lives. During this energetic and interactive session, James will empower the audience with strategies to build mental fitness, overcome adversity, and achieve their goals.

James will also sign copies of his new book, READY, SET, LIFE.

Vickie and Kim have been in the education sector and driver training industry collectively for over 40 years, providing driving instructors with practical strategies to support their business operations, structural planning, and financial management.

Cycle of optimisation

This session will show you the cycle of optimising your business to get the best performance from your workload and efforts. Have you heard of the saying ‘Working smarter, not harder’?  We say ‘Work wise to optimise’.

Be guided on how to review your business efforts and optimise your work.  What’s going to work best for YOU and YOUR business? What steps do you need to take? How can you make this happen?

Follow the ‘Cycle of optimisation’, and you can review, evaluate and grow your business annually.

What will be the five takeouts from this session?

1. Assessing your workload
2. Implementing change
3. Monitoring and reviewing workload
4. Goal setting and growing
5. Evaluation and starting your cycle again.

Confident Drivers is a membership website, podcast and training provider.  They offer training to help ADIs/PDIs develop skills to support nervous and anxious pupils during lessons.

They aim to help instructors pinpoint why a driver experiences anxiety so they know which techniques are most effective for each individual. One size doesn’t fit all!

Identifying and working with the most common causes of driving nerves and anxiety

This session will go into more detail about how to identify and then work with some of the most common causes of driving nerves and anxiety.  The reason behind a driver’s anxiety will change how you work with them, so we will share some simple questions to help you do the detective work to find out more.  We look at three common causes in more detail, what to look for, and some tips to help.

What will be the five takeouts from this session?

1. Understand the most common causes of nerves and anxiety
2. Have some simple questions to help you pinpoint the cause of your student
3. A better understanding of negative thinking habits and how to help
4. To know what to look for to spot when a fear of passing is holding someone back
5. Tips for identifying gaps in knowledge and understanding.

Mike helps PDIs and ADIs maximise their potential as driving instructors, emphasising the importance of self-development and reflection to help them be their best.

GDE: Can toddlers sprint?

In the post-COVID era, most instructors have had to prepare for a shorter Part 3 / Standards Check test, which could affect how they approach the highest levels of the NSDRT (National Standard for Driver and Rider Training) and their day-to-day lessons. We’ll explore barriers for instructors targeting these levels and look at how to encourage learners to self-evaluate based on the GDE (Goals for Driver Education) Matrix.

What will be the five takeouts from this session?

1: How using the NSDRT and GDE Matrix can create safer drivers

2: How can the high levels of driver training never be met if you don’t build a firm foundation?

3: The pitfalls of the higher levels of driver behaviour

4: Creating good habits to use as an instructor to target higher levels

5: How will these levels affect your Part 3 or Standards Check?

Ian spent almost 40 years in the NHS as a nurse and senior manager, followed by researching the politics of road death, graduating with a PhD. His family were involved in a catastrophic young driver crash which killed his 12-year-old daughter, Alice, and seriously injured Clara, his (then) six-year-old daughter and their mum. He is now a campaigner, writer and speaker.

Missed political opportunities: The story of young driver risk and GDL

Ian will cover four main aspects during his session.

1. His motivation for campaigning to stop road death: the story of the crash which impacted his family so devastatingly and five young drivers.
2. Do we have a problem that needs political attention? Disproportionate numbers of injury crashes involving young drivers have been an issue for decades, and this will be discussed from a historical perspective.
3. What policy solutions are best at reducing death or serious injury from young driver crashes – including Graduated Driving Licensing?
4. The current political climate and the critical role of the driving instructor.

Five takeouts from this session

1. The impact of young driver crashes with a personal story
2. Revision of young driver risk of causing death or serious injury
3. Discussion of the effectiveness of Graduated Driving License schemes and alternatives
4. The politics of supporting or restricting young drivers
5. Discussion with driving instructors on GDL and young driver risk.

Stewart is the Founder of Bright Coaching, Chair at the ADINJC, and MD at Caledonian Driver Training, which was Intelligent Instructor’s Regional Driving School of the Year ‘23.

Bias awareness in driver training

One of the key principles of the Safe System is that we all make mistakes. Yes, even driving instructors.

Cognitive biases, such as overconfidence, confirmation blindness, or inattention blindness, can significantly influence driver behaviour and decision-making, and they often lead drivers to unfortunate outcomes for all types of road users.

By utilising coaching techniques and introducing bias awareness training into our driving lessons, we can help educate the next generation of young drivers (and trainee driving instructors) and help people make better decisions for safer outcomes.

Tom is a Grade A ORDIT registered trainer who delivers all aspects of training to PDIs, ADIs, and instructor trainers. He still teaches learners, too. He is the Head of Training at the ADIJNC and a well-known and respected industry speaker who is experienced in delivering engaging sessions nationwide.

Effective observations

In this session, we will be looking at compelling observations. Observing effectively is an essential skill for any driver. However, deficiencies in the brain don’t always allow us to do that. We will cover some of these deficiencies, such as why “Look, but failed to see” can be a common factor in road crashes. We will also discuss what driver trainers can potentially do to help learners overcome some of these.

What will be the five take-outs from this session?

1. You can’t always trust what you think you see!
2. How our eyes work and how our brain perceives this information
3. What “Look But Fail to See” is, and how we might include training in our lessons
4. Strategies to overcome some of the brain deficiencies when observing
5. Why do drivers miss large coloured road signs?