Learning to drive is something most people aim to achieve in life as it gives you a real sense of freedom and opens up endless opportunities across the country or even further.

One sixth form in Breightmet – Bolton St Catherine’s Academy take the same views and now offer their students free driving lessons and their own personal laptop.

They believe that all students should have access to these resources and no one student should feel disadvantaged. They currently offer five free driving lessons to all pupils and say it’s a life skill they believe each pupil should achieve to ensure they are ready for real life.

Pupils are welcoming the gesture, saying it will reduce the financial burden college life brings and will allow them to travel to job interviews and attend courses much further away.

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The road safety charity the Institute of Advances Motorists has said that younger drivers are 15% more likely to be in a car crash than older drivers due to mistakes at the wheel or bad reactions. The report from the IAM shows that in crashed that have been the fault of drivers under 20, around 50% of them were due to rider and driver error or poor reactions.As experience as a driver grows, this drops to 42% when they are in their 20’s and ultimately 33% when the driver is aged 40-60. Factors that are prevalent with more aggressive styles of driving are also associated with crashes involving young drivers. These include losing control, travelling too fast for the road conditions, exceeding speed limits and sudden braking. Where alcohol was a factor, it accounted for 4.6% of crashes in the 17-24 age bracket and 3% for those aged 25-69.As driver and rider errors were the main cause of serious and fatal crashed for this age group it is clear they need more training and experience. The IAM is now calling for post test training for all young drivers during the first 12-18 months after they have passed their test. This is based on a scheme that was trialled in Austria and subsequently, thanks to the extra training, cut the death rate for young male drivers by 30%.The chief executive of IAM, Simon Best has said that drivers aged between 17 and 25 only make up 15% of the driving population, yet that suffer 30% of all accidents and also account for 40% of all insurance claims. He added that the findings clearly showed that handing a young person a driving licence without offering them any further help or training was putting too many young drivers at unacceptably high risk.