If you’re paying someone by the hour to teach you to drive, it’s worth knowing there are actually two different types of instructor you might end up with — and a genuine, easy way to tell them apart before you book a single lesson. Here’s what the badge in the windscreen actually means, why it matters, and how to check for yourself rather than just taking someone’s word for it.
ADI or PDI: What the Badge Colour Actually Tells You
In Great Britain, anyone who charges money to teach someone to drive has to be registered with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) — either as a fully qualified Approved Driving Instructor (ADI), or as a trainee working under a current trainee licence, usually referred to as a Potential Driving Instructor (PDI). Both are required by law to display an official identification badge in the windscreen of the car being used for the lesson, and the colour is the whole point: a green badge means a fully qualified ADI who has completed and passed DVSA’s full qualifying process, while a pink badge means a trainee who is still working towards that qualification under supervision.
Neither badge is something you need to take on trust — it’s meant to be visible, so you’re entitled to actually look at it, ask about it, or ask your instructor directly which one they hold.
Why the Difference Genuinely Matters
A green-badge ADI has been through DVSA’s full qualifying process: a theory and hazard perception test, a practical driving ability test to a high standard, and a separate practical test of their actual ability to teach, not just to drive. Once qualified, ADIs don’t get to coast indefinitely either — registration has to be periodically renewed, and DVSA carries out standards checks that assess an instructor’s teaching against a set of published criteria, with the result affecting how long they can keep their registration for.
A pink-badge trainee, by contrast, is still partway through that process. A trainee licence is only valid for a limited period at a time and has to be renewed to keep teaching for payment, and trainees are expected to be receiving ongoing training and supervision from a qualified ADI while they work towards their own full qualification. That doesn’t automatically make a trainee a poor teacher — plenty go on to become excellent instructors — but it does mean they haven’t yet passed the same instructional-ability assessment a green-badge ADI has, which is exactly why the two badges are colour-coded differently rather than left unmarked.
There’s a practical side to this too. Insurance for driving tuition, and some pupils’ own expectations around consistency and standards, are generally built around whichever badge is actually in the window — which is one more reason it’s worth being the kind of learner who checks, rather than assuming.
How to Actually Verify It
- Look at the badge itself. It should be on display in the windscreen during any lesson you’re paying for — green for a qualified ADI, pink for a trainee under a current trainee licence.
- Just ask. A genuine instructor, qualified or trainee, should have no problem telling you plainly which category they’re in and roughly how long they’ve been teaching.
- Use the official register. DVSA maintains the official register of approved driving instructors, and gov.uk lets you check it directly rather than relying on what’s printed on a car door or a business card — a useful step if you want independent confirmation before committing to a course of lessons.
- Be wary of anyone who avoids the question. It’s illegal to charge for driving tuition without being registered as an ADI or holding a current trainee licence, so a straight, confident answer is what you should expect — hesitation or vagueness is a reasonable reason to look elsewhere.
What This Means When You’re Choosing an Instructor
None of this is about treating trainee instructors with suspicion — a supervised PDI can still be a genuinely good teacher, and everyone who is now a green-badge ADI started out as one. It’s simply about knowing what you’re paying for and being able to check it, rather than guessing. All of Pass Mee’s instructors are DVSA-approved (ADI) — fully qualified, not trainees — but whichever driving school you choose, it’s entirely reasonable to ask to see the badge before your first lesson, or to check the register yourself if you’d rather have it confirmed independently. A confident, transparent answer is exactly what a properly registered instructor, at either stage, should be able to give you.