Creating an opportunity
This week Sherein caught up with George, one of our National Leaders from the Taranaki region to see how he went about solving an issue that some of his peers have been having around access to defensive driving courses.
Hi George, can you give us some background about what the problem was that you are trying to solve?
One of my first goals as a National Leader was to set something up for my peers which would benefit them and improve the way they drive. I thought about the most common way students learn about road safety, which is a defensive driving course. A defensive driving course takes six months off the time between getting your restricted and full license, this course consists of 4 sessions and a practical driving test. The problem which my peers face is that this course isn’t cheap, it usually costs around $250 and this made me think about how I could make the course accessible to more people.
How did you go about finding a solution to this problem?
I went about this problem by contacting a number of people/companies who run defensive driving courses in my region to see who could offer the best price at a discounted rate. I had quite a few students already wanting to do a course before I even started looking, so it was handy knowing the number to slide into a deal. I managed to set up a deal with a local instructor at a great rate. Currently, the course is halfway through at my school, with a full class of 20 students who have all been lucky enough to attend the course at the discounted rate.
Where to from here?
As things have gone really well, I plan to set up another course towards the end of the year as well as set up a platform that can be carried on at the school in future years. It feels good knowing safer driving practices are that bit easier to gain now for my peers, and it all helps towards our roads being safer.
Tino pai George, it is always inspiring to see young people see a problem and then do something very practical to help solve it. This is what the SADD/Kaitiaki o Ara programme is all about! If you have a road-safety related problem in your school or community, don’t hesitate to reach out to our staff team and we can help empower you to tackle some of these issues.