learning to drive: taking the fast lane

If you’re in year 12 or 13 right now, chances are you’ve got a lot of exciting things heading your way. Uni, work, apprenticeship, college, travelling, your opportunities open to you once you’ve finished your A-Levels or Highers are pretty endless.

With all that great stuff ahead of you, now’s the perfect time to put a little investment into your future.​

We don’t mean you need to clue yourself up on the stock market, or spend all your loose change on the latest cryptocurrency. Unless that’s your thing. Nope, we mean you should think about learning to drive.

Sure, Push has a lot of opinions on the automobile.

We weigh in on taking your car to uni in our Student Life section here. Heads up, we don’t think it’s really all that. But that might change depending on your situation, how far you need to travel on a daily basis and how good (or not) the public transport that’s available to you is.

Whether you'd want to drive on the regular or would rather spend your time walking/busing/training/cycling/rollerskating/scooting from place to place, having your driving license is a great thing.

First off, if you’ve got a part time job alongside your studies, now might be the first time you have a real expendable income all to yourself. Bet that feels good. Why not invest in a provisional license?

They cost £34, take a week to turn up, are accepted as national ID so you don’t have to worry about taking your passport on a night out, and they open up a world of possibilities.

Once you get your hands on one of these bad boys, you can take your driving theory test and practical lessons to work towards ditching those L-plates.

Having a full driving license isn’t only great for the obvious reasons (freedom, independence, petrol cash and favours in returns for driving your mates, cheap road trip holidays…), it also looks good on your CV. Yep, that’s what it all comes back to.

Like with all extracurriculars, which show you’ve gone above and beyond the bare minimum, having a license shows dedication, perseverance, skill, and the ability and drive to learn something new. ​

It might also open doors for you career-wise. As a young person, you’d have the chance to try your luck at flexible jobs like app-driven taxi services, takeaway delivery and courier work. Think booming tech start ups like Uber, Just Eat and Deliveroo.

A little further down the line, having a license would mean you could work in the transport industry. It would also mean you could be chosen for jobs with an expectation of travel, and might even land you a company car.

Even if you go on to study, live or work smack bang in the centre of a bustling city, where parking is like gold dust and everything is a stone’s throw away and it would be madness to consider owning a car, being able to drive is a great life skill to have.

For more ideas on extracurricular activities to give you the X-factor, read here.

Author

LUCY HARDING is the Editorial manager for Push. She is an English Literature grad and an MA Publishing student at UCL. She is passionate about international relations and cultural diversity, having worked closely with her university’s Erasmus society to support European students. She also spent a year abroad studying at California State University: Long Beach

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