About ORDIT
ORDIT was set up by the Driving Standards Agency with the support of the major driving schools and trade associations (i.e. DIA - Driving Instructors Association, MSA - Motor Schools Association, NJC - National Joint Council of ADI's, DISC - Driving Instructor Scottish Council). ORDIT was set up to protect the public from substandard training by setting a 'minimum' standard of competences for training providers. ORDIT is managed by the DSA and members failing to maintain the required standard may be removed (or feel compelled to resign) from ORDIT.
To have your driving instructor training approved by the DSA and the various industry associations listed above, you must join ORDIT and have your driving instructor trainers tested by the DSA every two years. The DSA only approve training from ORDIT organisations. The DSA do not recognise NVQ or any other qualification as adequate to train people to become driving instructors.
Not all ORDIT companies operate nationally
Unfortunately, some driving instructor training providers on ORDIT try to present themselves as being able to provide driving instructor training nationally, when in fact they only have a limited number of qualified driving instructor trainers. This can result in driving instructor training students having to wait weeks and sometimes months for their practical training. Any training that is given is provided in an intensive block, which is far from ideal, with trainers who do not know the area or the test routes or the specific preferences of the local examiner. Alternatively, these organisations use trainers who are not ORDIT qualified.
LDC currently have 35 DSA ORDIT qualified trainers. These trainers are based all around the UK to enable us to normally train you within the location that you will be examined.
What ORDIT is not
Being on ORDIT does not guarantee that the company is financially sound or that it will provide sufficient driving instructor training to pass the necessary examination or provide the training in a timely manner or deliver the career promises it may have made. However, it does ensure the trainers were able to satisfy a minimum standard when they were last inspected by the DSA.
Regarding the above, the DSA state the following disclaimer on its website and in the ORDIT booklet it supplies.
"The Agency does not check an organisation's financial standing and inclusion in the Register should not be taken as a measure of its financial stability. Similarly, the Agency has no role in contractual disputes which are matters for the parties to that contract to resolve and the DSA is therefore unlikely to intervene in such matters".
Why would companies not be on ORDIT?
At the moment ORDIT is a voluntary scheme and to join it does require a driving instructor training organisation to pay a membership fee of £117.50 plus a fee for each of its premises and trainer inspected by the DSA every two years of between £86.36 and £227.65 per trainer and £227.65 per premises. These are the only costs involved in being a member of ORDIT. Some non-ORDIT driving instructor training organisations use these costs as a reason for not being part of the scheme or they make various false claims that ORDIT is about to be scrapped or some other misleading claim. You really shouldn't be giving any money to an organisation that cannot afford these nominal DSA inspection and membership fees!
If an organisation is not on ORDIT it is probably because they do not wish to be bound by the ORDIT code of practice or employ the services of properly DSA ORDIT qualified driving instructor trainers throughout their driving instructor training programme. Alternatively, it is simply because they couldn't reach the required minimum training standard.