Okehampton driving instructor launches 'first of its kind' course to keep new drivers safe

A driving instructor from West Devon has launched an innovative new course aimed at helping parents teach their children to become safer drivers – not just to pass the test, but to survive the roads beyond it.

Kate Monk, 36, who has worked as a driving instructor for the past decade, has written and designed My Learner Driver – the first in a series of courses under her company, Driven To Improve Ltd. 

The course is designed specifically for the parents of learner drivers and aims to tackle the shocking statistics around young driver fatalities by shifting focus onto the family as a whole.

“I see so many young people come to the re-education courses who have crashed post-test but lived (many of them local to West Devon and Okehampton), and I am sure that you are well aware of the horror stories from the past few years of local new drivers losing their lives on the road,” said Kate.

“I also see the quality of driving in the age groups that would be their parents and that is equally frightening.”

Kate has decided to take matters into her own hands, creating a course aimed at addressing the gap in road safety education for young drivers and their families.

“I have designed a course for the parents of learner drivers giving them all the tools they need to be able to make sure that their learner drivers are safe beyond the test,” she explained.

The course includes lessons in commentary driving, communication techniques to help guide a learner out of difficult situations, teaching reflective thinking, and how to have frank conversations about risks behind the wheel – including driving with friends, speeding, mobile phone use and distractions.

“Subtly, it will drastically improve the driving of the parents as they have to learn each skill first to demonstrate it to their learner. It should create a safer attitude to the new drivers and respect for the risks taken on every drive by everyone,” she said.

The project has already attracted national attention. 

A research project is being assembled by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is also studying the course.

“It’s comprehensive, the first of its kind and industry changing,” said Kate.

Although the course is still being finalised, the first two of eight modules will launch nationally in a matter of weeks, with new content released monthly.

All videos and interactive materials are being filmed in and around Okehampton, featuring local people and roads.

Kate, a mum of two young children, said the idea came not just from her work as an instructor but from her own concerns about her children's future safety on the road.

“There is a bias in our lives – that familiar ‘It won’t happen to me, that’s the kind of thing that happens to other people’. It’s present in parents and it’s particularly present in new young drivers. I have written this course as a mum with an eye to when my children are getting in the car with their friends later in their teens. It really can happen to you and sadly does happen all too regularly.”

The course encourages parents to reflect on their own driving behaviours and the messages they send – consciously or not – to their children.

“If a parent has only ever driven at 35 in a 30 for whatever reasons they have, what do they expect their learner to do once their test is passed?” she said. 

“If a parent is regularly checking their messages whilst driving, what example does that set to the novice driver who will not have enough control to manage the bend they haven’t seen?”

The course also aims to help families save money, by creating more self-aware learners who need fewer professional lessons.

“It teaches parents to talk through their driving and why they are doing what they are doing to their younger passengers which in turn, creates a more aware learner driver at 17 who will be safer, easier to teach by an instructor and should spend much less overall on their driving lessons.”

Beyond the UK, Kate plans to create tailored versions of the course for Australia and New Zealand, with translations into other languages to follow. 

She’s also been approached to ghostwrite courses for other instructors with ideas they’ve struggled to bring to life.

“There are many tools out there explaining what is needed to supervise a learner driver and how to pass the driving [test], but it is all aimed at passing the test and does not address the bigger issues of road safety,” said Kate.

“My Learner Driver has nothing to do with how to use the car, how to turn a junction – you still need an instructor for that. But it targets the much wider awareness, planning, anticipation skills a learner and parent needs in a nitty gritty, step-by-step how-to guide full of videos and explanations.”