Last update ~ 6th April 2012 ~ CS

Blackpool & Fylde Advanced Motorists Group

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The IAM does not use the term instructor. An instructor, thinking back to your L-plate days, is also a supervising driver and is expected, if circumstances require, to assume control of the vehicle -- driving school cars are, by and large, fitted with dual controls.  Candidates for the Advanced Driving Test are not learners and often have many years of experience. They do not need supervision and we do not have lessons -- you participate in observed drives or runs in your own vehicle.

An IAM Observer accompanies you on these runs to offer support and advice but is not acting as a supervising driver and never takes control -- all driving decisions are those of the driver alone. Similarly, you are not a pupil but an Associate Member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, becoming a full Member on passing the test.

All Observers are qualified to IAM national standards and are re-tested at intervals by the IAM to ensure consistency. An Observer may be a serving or retired police officer, while Examiners are all serving or retired Police Class 1 drivers with experience in the Road Traffic Department.

Ihe ideal time to think about becoming an Observer is whilst you are undergoing your training with us for the Advanced Driving Test.  Are you aware of the knowledge that the Observer sat next to you on your Runs has, or have you the skills to be able to do what he or she can do and have you got the ability to be able to support and guide other Associates towards those same skills and attributes?  If so, providing you can give up several Sunday mornings during the year, then you just might enjoy becoming an Observer ..... In fact we know you will.

You have to be a Full Member of the IAM and of our Group and if you are starting from scratch, the levels of Observer training that you will have to go through, once you have been successful in passing your Advanced Driving Test, will be those of a Trainee Observer, a Group Observer, a Qualified Observer and eventually up to a Senior Observer.

The essence of going up through the ranks, as it were, is that a Trainee Observer follows a standard IAM Observer Training Manual and in our Group, will most certainly undertake this training alongside our Chief Observer or other longstanding senior, Senior Observers.  Once you have been through a number of Runs as Trainee and it might take upwards of 12 months to achieve that level, you can enter the system as a Group Observer, a level that will allow you to exercise your newly acquired guidance, support and observing skills unaccompanied and now alongside other new Associates, just like you were once.  If you want to stay on as a Group Observer, that is fine but you must have at least ten Observed Runs per year and be reassessed annually by one of our Senior Observers, just to make sure you still retain the skills that we expect from you as a highly respected Group.

Having then carried out a minimum of ten hours of Observed Runs with Associates and had six months of practical Observing experience with our Group during the current twelve months, you might feel as though you now want to go higher further into the process. The next stage will be to become a Qualified Observer, without any cost to you of course. This is a tad more difficult in that there is a Group set paper-assessment followed by a Group based but IAM standard practical driving demonstration assessment both of which are based upon the Highway Code, Roadcraft and of IAM information like the book “How to be a better driver”  You have to pass the paper assessment with a minimum 80% of each section of the Written test and to have been “satisfactory” in the driving assessment, undertaken by one of our senior, Senior Observers, if not the Chief Observer himself.  With that out of the way, providing you are recommended by the Chief / Senior Observer and approved by the Group Committee and whilst of course you are still within the auspices of our Group, then you will be certificated as a Qualified Observer.  It doesn’t end there though because to retain your status as a Qualified Observer, you still must carry out ten hours of Observed Runs annually thereafter and be reassessed every three years to the IAM Standard by a locally based Senior Observer.

Now you might just feel that your input into our Group could be best served if you became a Senior Observer as you can help other Observers at this stage not simply to carry out Observed Runs with Associates.

To become a Senior Observer, quite obviously there is a more strenous undertaking to overcome, again involving a practical assessment.  To be entitled to go on to this level of Observer, you have to have fulfilled the requirement of satisfying our Chief Observer that the criteria of a Qualified Observer has been met with those ten hours of Observed Runs.  However, you have also to have completed an additional ten hours of Observed Runs, either with Associates, or fellow Qualified or Senior Observers, to make up a total of 20 hours of Observed Runs during the current twelve months.  The practical test this time will incur an expenditure that will however be borne by our Group.  The two-part assessment will have you giving a demonstration drive with commentary and then for the second part with you in company with an Associate under the auspices of a normal Observed Run, The assessment will be undertaken by an IAM Examiner at which you must have reached a “Satisfactory Grade”.  If the IAM Examiner recommends that you are made up to a Senior Observer, your name will be held by the IAM Head Office as such.  The level of Observed Runs that you now must make as a Senior Examiner goes up to a minimum of 20 hours each year.

To maintain your status of Senior Observer, you will be reassessed on the third anniversary of being appointed Senior, more than likely by our Chief Observer and then on the six year anniversary, once more by the IAM and one of its Examiners.

You are always part of this team and never doing this alone as it really doesn’t matter what status you hold with us, Terry insists upon regular training sessions for all Observers to make sure we maintain the highest standards for our group ... He’s very professional like that you know!

It might look a bit daunting on paper but like the old phrase goes, “If it’s worth doing .... it’s worth doing properly.”  

Contact Terry on chiefobserver@bafam.org.uk and come and join us.