Starter Kit. Idea 336 of 500. Cluster 16
Driving schools that teach to the international test, so the licence transfers
The mechanism, from the book
177,000 qualify every year and 45,000 get a place. The other 130,000 are a market that nobody has built for, and the polytechnic is not a second choice when it leads to a job.
The first step
Collect the driving-test requirements of two countries where the island's drivers go to work, and compare them with what local driving schools teach. Offer a short top-up course that covers the gaps to 10 learners preparing to go abroad. If the learners who take it pass abroad and send others to you, that is your proof.
- Who pays first
- A worker heading abroad for a driving job, who will pay for lessons that get them through the foreign test first time.
- What leaves today
- Drivers leave with licences that do not transfer and must pay again abroad, or are hired at a lower grade.
Ask first
- Department of Motor Traffic. Ask how a licence gained here is recorded and what extra test is offered.
- Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment. Ask which countries most drivers leave for and what they must show.
Check before you spend
Which driving tests in the destination countries accept training from abroad, and whether your school needs approval to teach and use a vehicle for lessons.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a learner pay for a top-up course?
- How many learners leave each year for driving jobs?
- What share of your trained learners passed abroad first time?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.