High Schools lead charge in road safety

The Managing Director of youdrive, Kevin Wall

One of the many milestones in life – and one that, for many, can’t come soon enough – is the obtaining of a driver’s license. NZers can start driving legally at an earlier age than most populations; but standards of driver training, among other reasons, mean that our young people are overrepresented in road accident statistics, with loss of control and inexperience listed among the top four causes of fatal crashes involving 15- to 24-year-old drivers.

Edgewater College in east Auckland has lead the charge, followed by six other schools nationwide who intend not to allow its students to become statistics. Edgewater College embraced road safety by becoming the first school in NZ to introduce a new, NZQA-accredited Youth Driver Development Course, ‘youdrive’. Module one of the programme has already been successfully delivered to Edgewater College students this year.

Youdrive launched to teach driving as a crucial ‘life skill’, and aims to equip students with the knowledge to enable them to make sensible decisions both before and while driving.

The level of response to what youdrive is offering has been high. Approximately 80 per cent of the schools who have been offered the youdrive programme have expressed interest in implementing the course as part of their curriculum next year.

In addition to the benefit of equipping students with the necessary life skill of driving, youdrive also offers incentives for schools who take on the programme, in a bid to reach youdrive’s goal of lowering youth driver fatalities.

Youdrive was launched by the reputable private training establishment AMS Group, which has over 12 years’ experience in providing various classes of licenses through unit standard courses.

Judi Tredwell, careers coordinator at the pilot school, Edgewater College, says, “When we were introduced to youdrive, I immediately thought, ‘This is exactly what I have wanted to implement for our students.’ Obtaining a driver’s license is not just an important step in career development, it also provides independence and the opportunity to build new skills.

“Youdrive’s phased programme fits perfectly into our curriculum, and the unit standards are a great incentive for students to take part.”

Young drivers are more than two-and-a-half times more likely to have speed as a factor in a crash than drivers over the age of 25. In 2009, drivers aged 15 to 24 were involved in 112 fatal traffic crashes, and in 89 of these cases, the drivers were found to be at fault.

To complement schools’ existing programmes, the youdrive education programme is designed to be taught at school, as part of the current NCEA curriculum, by a qualified youdrive trainer. Students can achieve relevant unit standards for taking and passing the course. Youdrive uses a combination of practical and theoretical methods, and competitions and prizes, to maintain interest and deliver positive outcomes.

The managing director of youdrive, Kevin Wall, says, “We launched the ‘youdrive’ brand after we identified a lack of quality driver education for young people. AMS Group sees secondary school education as a key component of an integrated solution. Youdrive aims to redirect driver education from simply ‘obtaining a license’ to instilling the importance of being a responsible driver who makes good decisions behind the wheel.

“There is a recognisable lack among youth of the experience, skills and insight required to drive a car, and parents are not always best-placed to teach their children to drive. There are clear benefits to a general improvement in training, most of all the potential to reduce road deaths and injuries, and we are pleased at the strong response from schools. We hope Edgewater College will be the first of many.”

Youdrive’s Youth Driver Development Programme is available to all NZ secondary schools. Schools who wish to learn about the programme can contact info@youdrive.co.nz.