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NT Driver Training & Licensing industry - Zipper's Driving School

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Comments expressed in these columns are opinions of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of others.

NO MORE
LICENSE TESTING
BY INSTRUCTORS!

DRIVESAFE NT
LAUNCHED

 

8 April 2012 16 April 2012  
The NT Motor Vehicle Registry (MVR) licensing examiners test candidates for their Provisional driving licence.

Another avenue for learner drivers to achieve their P's was to enrol in a certificate course ("TLIC107C Drive Car") under the Australian Quality Framework which is now replaced by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).

Driver trainers working under the banner of a Registered Training Organisation provided the course and tested their students, who would then receive a certificate and present it at an MVR to receive their NT Provisional licence.

TLIC107C has "expired" and NT instructors can now no longer test their students, instead they have to be tested by an MVR Licence Testing Officer.

RELIEVED

Most instructors would not be happy with this turn of events, but some instructors (including me) are relieved.

Why would I be relieved that I can no longer test my own students?
Read my opinion on this subject on my blog.
  DriveSafe NT (DSNT), the program which replaces the NT Government's innovative DTAL (Driver Training And Licensing) log-book driver training & education program, has completed the pilot stage and formally launched in April 2012.

No more enrolments in the DTAL program are being taken, although current DTAL students can complete the program.

IMPROVEMENTS

The program has been re-designed and aims to rectify problems with the old DTAL program.

The MVR's DriveSafe NT Project team have consulted extensively with stakeholders in the NT's driver training industry and the amount of thought and attention to detail that the team put into developing the program is impressive.

Previously, "DTAL Coordinators" (staff members of the institutions which hosted DTAL Theory classes on their campus) performed this task, usually without reimbursement for their efforts and often without thanks as well.
The MVR now handles enrolments.

JOINING THE "INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGE"

Once students have enrolled in DSNT, they can organise to attend theory classes and register with an instructor on-line, (even from their mobile phone if they wish) and also track their progress.

A lot of the paperwork associated with DTAL has gone, in particular the DTAL paper vouchers which were open to fraud and abuse are replaced by an electronic form ("e-vouchers").

Students can request e-vouchers from their computer or smart phone, and instructors can accept and validate e-vouchers and upload achieved competencies after a driving lesson from their own phone (requiring their mobile number to be registered with the program).

At this point in time (August 2012) the system seems to be working very well.
 z

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