aka IAM’s Skill For Life training programme Part 1
I am taking the IAM’s Skill For Life training programme and, based on my experience, want to promote this as the ideal choice for women who are either novice drivers, nervous after an accident or road rage incident perhaps, or simply want some tips and to be brought up to date with motoring matters years after passing their driving test.
A refresher driving programme for women?
A couple of posts on the Mumsnet website got me thinking. One was from a Mum whose husband criticised everything she did behind the driving wheel, so much so he’d turned her from an averagely adequate motorist into a gibbering incompetent, wrecking her driving self esteem in the process.
The other was from a lady who had been injured in a fairly major road accident and had understandably lost her motoring mojo as a consequence. They were both in need of a fairly major confidence boost and unless this came soon, both were likely to find excuses not to drive in future.
Add to these the number of recently divorced and widowed ladies that join the Club for moral support, finding they need to drive again after years of their husband doing this for them. This made me realise that there IS a demand for a refresher style of driving course for women. By that I mean one that
+ encourages and compliments us more than criticises us
+ comes in a packaged form and is affordable
+ allows the motorist to dictate the content (because we usually know what we need to improve upon)
+ gives us a flexible time schedule to complete the job – up to a year I’d say
+ was fun to take…
This all coincided with me thinking about taking a refresher driving course myself. After all, I run a motoring club and probably should be better at motoring than I am and it’s been close to 30 years since I passed my test and I only had 13 lessons before that…
In short I had decided that I wanted to be a better and safer driver in future.
The IAM’s Skill For Life programme
Under normal circumstances I doubt I would have looked twice at the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) because that status sounded so male and all I wanted was to be a better, safer driver, not take on the Top Gear team… However I soon discovered my error when our two organisations were working side by side during a recent roadshow of Ladies Evenings in the South East. I quickly learned that their Skill For Life course offered precisely what I was looking for so I signed up and have since negotiated a 10% discount to benefit Club members.
This programme normally costs £149 so FOXY’s discount reduces this to c£135 and I’m keen to tell as many women drivers of all ages (and young male drivers who realise the risk they run on our roads) about this and that it includes…
+ Free RAC breakdown cover
+ As many observed driving lessons as you need in the company of a local IAM observer (probably an average of c10-12 x two hour lessons during the course of a year)
+ Full IAM membership benefits (magazine, insurance service etc)
+ An optional test at the end (if you want to get the Advanced Motorist badge)
You might save money on your insurance afterwards (I haven’t got this far yet) but that’s missing the point for me. I now know what I was doing wrong previously and what I need to do to become a better driver. It’s not going to be a quick fix but I’m going to be safer and more confident as a result of my new found knowledge and experience. And it will then become a skill I top up for life I hope.
If you’d like to know how I fared and what I’ve learned so far (after 5 x two hour lessons) I’ll be writing about this in my next posting.
FOXY