Cieca | The International Commission for Driver Testing

The EU HERMES project began in March 2007 and will focus, over the next 3 years, on creating an easy-to-use training package for driving teachers on the subject of ‘how to coach’. A multi-national team of experienced driving teachers, psychologists, educational and coaching experts have been assembled for this purpose.

Driving is a ‘self-paced task’: it is the driver who makes the choices. Drivers must choose if they drive, when they drive, how they drive and with whom. But to be able to pace themselves well, drivers to have a realistic perception of their skills and ability and must avoid being influenced by external factors (such as peer pressure). A succession of EU projects have thus stressed the importance of driver training that develops the self-evaluation skills of learner drivers and addresses how higher-order factors such as journey-related contexts and motives - and an understanding how lifestyle factors and personal characteristics - can impact on driving. The use of coaching methods in driver training is seen to be a key way to achieve these goals. Coaching is about raising awareness, developing responsibility and motivating the learner to make the right decisions in traffic. It builds on the physical, emotional and intellectual experiences of the coachee.

The EU HERMES project began in March 2007 and will focus, over the next 3 years, on creating an easy-to-use training package for driving teachers on the subject of ‘how to coach’. A multi-national team of experienced driving teachers, psychologists, educational and coaching experts have been assembled for this purpose (NAME, organisation)

• Gregor BARTL, Institut Gute Fahrt, Austria
  
• Kay SCHULTE, DVR (German Road Safety Council)
  
• Esko KESKINEN, Turku University, Finland
  
• John WHITMORE, Performance Consultants, UK
  
• Lauk WOLTRING, Innovation, Advice & Training, Netherlands
  
• Marc PANNACCI, Centre de Formation pour Conducteurs, Luxembourg
  
• Albert ALUMA, RACC Automobile Club, Spain
  
• Norbert HAUSHERR, Austrian Driving Schools’ Association
  
• Robert KOTAL, Traffic Academy of Bohemia, Czech Rep.
  
• Sakari HOPIA, Finnish Driving Schools’ Association
  
• Gérard ACOURT, ECF (Ecole de Conduite Française), France
  
• Lars GUNNARSON, EFA (European Driving Schools’ Association)
  
• Ian EDWARDS, A2om, UK
  
• Nick SANDERS, CIECA
  

HERMES will draw on existing experience of coaching methods in driver training and on expert advice in the greater coaching world. The end result will be a highly practical training package which new and experienced driving teachers can follow, including:

1. What is coaching - the principles of coaching
   
2. Why coach - aims and rationale of coaching in driver training
   
3. When – and when not - to coach: practical application in driver training
   
4. How to coach - methods to be used by the driving teachers
   
5. Scenarios for coaching: training exercises
   

The course documentation will include the training-of-trainers, audiovisual support, user manuals and practical coaching scenarios for learner and novice driver training. The complete package will be tested and evaluated in a pilot project and will be adapted as a result. The training is likely to be a 2 day + 1 day + 1 day format, with time in between for course participants to employ their new found skills in practice.

For more information: info@cieca.be