For much of the year the drivers had Learners attached to them from the nearby Driving School - the company annually received a hefty sum for carrying out this teaching work. Depending on the type of vehicle and nature of the jobs, one or two Learners were supposed to shadow the drivers and pick up tips both from observing them 'in real life' and from dedicated talks that the drivers gave. Because there were so many different types of vehicle the Learners spent only four weeks at a time with each sort.
One Friday morning one of the drivers was doing his usual round of preparing the vehicles for the coming week. A Learner accompanied him. The first car was a Ferrari that needed refuelling. The driver took it to the fuel pumps and explained to the learner about the type of fuel, the amount the vehicle consumed and the dangers of allowing the level to fall too low. As they left, moving on to the next job the Learner enquired:
"So, do you put the petrol into the boot or directly into the cylinders?"
The driver was astounded and horrified in about equal measure. He could barely begin to imagine the thought processes that led to the asking of this question, displaying as it did the lack of both theoretical and practical knowledge of the Learner. Moreover, the chap clearly hadn't done any background reading to ask such a daft question. He tried to explain.
The next vehicle was a Jeep. The tyre pressures were rather low and needed correcting before the next arduous off-road journey. The driver tried to give the Learner another chance.
"So what do you think could make tyre pressures go down?" he asked.
First silence. Then: "Is it air?"
The driver shuddered inwardly. Even the man in the street knew a few reasons why tyre pressures were low. He tried to give broad hints to the Learner to tease out some correct answers. Finally:
"Is it spontaneous combustion of the tyre rubber?"
The driver sighed and moved on.
The third car they came to had broken down the day before. The driver approached it with a spring in his step. The basic principles of Assessing Brokendown Cars. Surely the Learner would get something right here?
"So if the engine won't start what should be the first thing you look for?" he queried.
The Learner looked blank. "Do you have to take the engine out and take it to pieces?" he ventured. The driver inwardly wept.
"No," he persevered. "Can you think of something simpler first?"
Silence.
"Look, you've done your workshop attachment. Apply what you learnt there." He was becoming exasperated.
Again silence.
"Have you heard of the fuel gauge?"
The Learner shook his head.
And so it went on through the long morning until they had finished. The Learner held out a piece of paper to the driver.
"Can you give me a grade for my four weeks with you, please" he asked.
The driver, annoyed and angered beyond belief by now, let fly.
"Frankly no. For a start, this - the last day of your attachment - is the first time in the four weeks that I've even seen you. Secondly, every question I asked you this morning you got wrong. Not just a bit wrong but spectacularly so - so much so that I would have got more sense asking the boy who cleans the windscreens. To give you a grade I would struggle finding a letter low enough, as frankly a 'Z minus' would be too high."
The Learner left, sulking, to find another driver whom he might cajole into giving him a 'C'.
One Friday morning one of the drivers was doing his usual round of preparing the vehicles for the coming week. A Learner accompanied him. The first car was a Ferrari that needed refuelling. The driver took it to the fuel pumps and explained to the learner about the type of fuel, the amount the vehicle consumed and the dangers of allowing the level to fall too low. As they left, moving on to the next job the Learner enquired:
"So, do you put the petrol into the boot or directly into the cylinders?"
The driver was astounded and horrified in about equal measure. He could barely begin to imagine the thought processes that led to the asking of this question, displaying as it did the lack of both theoretical and practical knowledge of the Learner. Moreover, the chap clearly hadn't done any background reading to ask such a daft question. He tried to explain.
The next vehicle was a Jeep. The tyre pressures were rather low and needed correcting before the next arduous off-road journey. The driver tried to give the Learner another chance.
"So what do you think could make tyre pressures go down?" he asked.
First silence. Then: "Is it air?"
The driver shuddered inwardly. Even the man in the street knew a few reasons why tyre pressures were low. He tried to give broad hints to the Learner to tease out some correct answers. Finally:
"Is it spontaneous combustion of the tyre rubber?"
The driver sighed and moved on.
The third car they came to had broken down the day before. The driver approached it with a spring in his step. The basic principles of Assessing Brokendown Cars. Surely the Learner would get something right here?
"So if the engine won't start what should be the first thing you look for?" he queried.
The Learner looked blank. "Do you have to take the engine out and take it to pieces?" he ventured. The driver inwardly wept.
"No," he persevered. "Can you think of something simpler first?"
Silence.
"Look, you've done your workshop attachment. Apply what you learnt there." He was becoming exasperated.
Again silence.
"Have you heard of the fuel gauge?"
The Learner shook his head.
And so it went on through the long morning until they had finished. The Learner held out a piece of paper to the driver.
"Can you give me a grade for my four weeks with you, please" he asked.
The driver, annoyed and angered beyond belief by now, let fly.
"Frankly no. For a start, this - the last day of your attachment - is the first time in the four weeks that I've even seen you. Secondly, every question I asked you this morning you got wrong. Not just a bit wrong but spectacularly so - so much so that I would have got more sense asking the boy who cleans the windscreens. To give you a grade I would struggle finding a letter low enough, as frankly a 'Z minus' would be too high."
The Learner left, sulking, to find another driver whom he might cajole into giving him a 'C'.
*
Later, walking down the corridor deep in thought, the driver ran into Paul. He thought he would ask him about the state of the Learner's woeful lack of knowledge. He explained the details of his morning's trauma. "Don't you think at this stage - eight ninths of the way through their third year of training - they should be rather better?" he asked.
Paul smiled and shook his head.
"Oh, I don't know," he said in a conciliatory tone. "I can understand how that could happen. They are told that they needn't concentrate too much on the practicalities for the first four years - rather learn about more abstract principles that might stand them in good stead later."
"But the practicalities are what underpin everything that they are going to do when they qualify, not to mention the best way of learning facts," protested the driver.
"Well," said Paul. "They are very good at colouring in pictures of cars."
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