Yesterday, DVSA launched the latest phase of its ongoing campaign to recruit additional driving examiners to help reduce driving test waiting times. You can find out more about the role and how to apply on the Civil Service Jobs website.
A similar recruitment exercise earlier this year led to almost 200 applicants being offered positions. Once they start testing, these examiners will create over 230,000 tests a year to help work towards reducing driving test waiting times.
Updating the recruitment process
DVSA regularly reviews the recruitment process for driving examiners. In previous campaigns, DVSA have found that many candidates who progressed to the training phase did not have the correct technical knowledge of the driving test rules, road signs and the Highway Code.
Since the training phase is the most labour and resource-intensive part of the recruitment process, DVSA now makes sure there is a thorough assessment of all aspects of a potential examiner’s capabilities before they proceed to training. This is being done by introducing a theory test during the recruitment process. Candidates must pass this to demonstrate their in-depth technical knowledge of the relevant areas.
Driving Examiner open days
DVSA will also be running a number of open days at driving test centres where potential examiners can visit and learn more about the role. You can find further details on the DfT recruitment site.
DVSA encourage all potential candidates to explore the available resources and make sure that they are fully prepared for the recruitment process. Best of luck on your journey to becoming a driving examiner!
What has the DIA said
DIA’s CEO, Carly Brookfield, comments: “One of the key problems DVSA faces at the moment, is not enough people want the job of delivering testing. Real efforts have been made to recruit more Examiner resources to the frontline of testing, and there is some evidence of progress.
“The fundamental issue is that the Examiner role isn’t that attractive to the target audience. As well as developing the training process to make it more efficient in terms of deployment of new Examiners, there was talk of new communication campaigns to attract new talent but, as a Marketing professional myself, I was at pains to point out the obvious – if the pay and conditions of the role aren’t attractive enough, then even the slickest campaign in the world is going to struggle to have the impact you want.
“There was also the mention of the possible recruitment of more part-time recruits, who could be deployed more flexibly. Now this is something I’ve had previous discussions with senior management at DVSA about – focusing on how the agency develops a more adaptive resourcing approach, including flexible working patterns (and could they even consider other attributes job candidates find appealing these days, dare I say it, a work from home scenario…?)
“Personally, in our latest discussion, my feedback to DVSA was that they still have to look at pay and conditions regardless. Because this is a game of recruitment and retention– otherwise you’re just fishing with a net with a big hole in it, spending money on training and recruitment only for it to walk out the door.”
2 thoughts on “Recruiting more driving examiners”
£28K a year full time. Approx £14 a time to get in the car with pupils who might not be at the standard required to be on the road. No thanks!
What’s really annoying with the test and examiner fiasco, is that the answer is so simple.
1. Raise the cost of a test. It hasn’t changed in 15 years. Its too cheap. £150 a test would help and get people to think more about “oh I’ll give it a go”.
2. Pay the examiners a decent rate. £36k and I might be interested. (I won’t because I enjoy the flexibility of being self-employed and working to be diary and requirements)
The Military have their own driving schools, where they train their own examiners. The standards are claimed to be higher than “Civvy Street .” Most of the military provisional drivers undertake intensive training, carried out by full-time, qualified, professional instructors. The pass rates for recruits are higher, because the drivers are not entered for tests, until they reach a good standard. Some of the Military Examiners have been invited to cover Civilian driving tests, in times of holiday relief, or shortage of regular Examiners. Provisional drivers, who were not well prepared, still returned a failed result.