18 May 2020
One of the UK’s biggest driving schools is giving learner drivers free online theory lessons to help keep their skills up-to-date during Covid-19.
The AA Driving School has opened the online Zoom tutorials to any learners – not just those learning with one of its franchised instructors.
During lockdown, the AA Driving School has received had more than 20,000 new pupil enquiries online. Prospective pupils have been placed on a waiting list and will be contacted when lockdown ends to book their lessons in.
A successful trial session took place last week and they have now been opened up to anyone looking to improve their theory knowledge across the UK, set to run daily (Monday to Friday) at 12pm from Monday, May 18th.
Sarah Rees, managing director of AA Driving School, said: "We know that younger generations are likely to bear the financial brunt of this crisis.
"Their exams have been cancelled and they are now leaving school or graduating from university into an unprecedented economic situation.
"For many of them, being able to drive will help with employment prospects. For those who had already started lessons, being forced to take a significant break from them will in effect mean they are starting over again when lessons do recommence.
"We're excited to offer free, online driver education to the learner community. Being able to take part in these online sessions will help them maintain a level of learning that should help minimise the disruption an extended break from lessons has had.
"It's also a chance to anyone, whether they are already learning or not, to brush up on their skills and might help alleviate some of the lockdown boredom."
Each session will cover a different theory topic, including rules of the road, attitude and hazard awareness. Participants will receive an introduction to the topic before working through practice questions, which they can vote on the answer. The session will finish with a question and answer section. At any point during the session, participants can ask a chat-based question.
"We're excited to offer free, online driver education to the learner community."
She said: "The first session went well; I was nervous beforehand, but once I got into the swing of things I forgot how many people were in the session and just carried on.
"Many learners don't know when they are ready to take the theory test, some will book it too early and others will not revise important parts like hazard perception. If you fail the test you aren't shown the reasons for this or which questions were incorrect, so it's difficult to learn from your mistakes.
"Normally you learn the theory independently and it can become boring if you can't see your progress, but these sessions can help you to stay focused.
"I would say to anyone who is not sure about signing up that they can definitely help with your revision as there's someone there to talk you through the answers, there's no test and if you get questions wrong no one will know because you vote on a polling system.
Currently all driving lessons, except those for critical key workers, have been suspended. The AA Driving School is supporting its franchised driving instructors through Covid-19 with a comprehensive package of financial support.
Anyone can join the live sessions every day from Monday 18th May, to find out more click here where you can also leave your details and be paired up with a local instructor when it is safe to re-start lessons.
