The rules regarding displaying the licence could change in the future, and I will cover this in detail in the next edition of our newsletter, but for now the DSA is powerless if you don’t want to co-operate. And why should you? Some ADI’s who believe pass rates are important collect their own test data anyway, which is far more accurate, to use in the advertising, although there are those who manipulate the figures to enhance their business. One ADI once advertised that he had a 100% pass rate. When the Advertising Standards Authority investigated he told them that it was correct because all his pupils passed with him eventually!
Pass rates are not always a reliable indicator of an ADI’s performance anyway, and can be easily manipulated. I have an old analysis report which shows that in the year of issue I had a 100% pass rate. I forgot to remove my licence for one test and the pupil passed.
ADI’s whose main business is from young people will have a better pass rate than, for example, the ADI who specialises in the older, disabled and special needs groups. A colleague who used to teach disabled learners had a pass rate of 31% yet he worked ten times harder to get people through their tests than I did.
DSA’s failure to collate test data accurately, was mainly down to human error when an examiner writes the number incorrectly, and when the data is collected from the DL25 records. From April 2014 it will start using electronic tablets to record tests, but it remains to be seen whether the captured data can be collated any more accurately. And even if it is,