An English driver training company has been praised for providing a training course in Welsh.
Shropshire based TTC 2000, part of the TTC Group, started to run speed awareness courses in mid and South Wales last year and provide all Welsh speaking trainers for course attenders who request it.
Motorist Mary Leyshon (43), manager of Welsh language services at Cardiff University, said she was very pleased to find the course provided in her “mother tongue.”
She attended the course along with 13 others at Bridgend after being caught driving at 34mph outside the Pant School on her way home to Cowbridge from the supermarket near Pontyclun in South Wales.
“There are lots of different levels of Welsh spoken but I found the trainer’s Welsh was very good. It was understood by everybody on the course,” said Mrs Leyshon, who went to a Welsh speaking school and speaks Welsh as her first language.
“It can be difficult to recruit Welsh speaking trainers but I must thank TTC for providing us with an excellent Welsh speaker, especially as they are not an organisation from Wales. The company should be hugely commended.”
She also praised the speed awareness course.
“It was very good. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if everyone attended it as a refresher.”
TTC Trainer Dorian Davies, who grew up as a Welsh speaker, said that he had been able to adapt the language in the course to suit all the different levels of Welsh spoken by course attenders.
“We have only run a few all Welsh spoken courses since introducing the scheme last year but we are very pleased to hear that they have gone down well.”
TTC General Manager Des Morrison said: “We want to get our message over about safer driving so by providing the course in both Welsh and English it means we are reaching as many people as possible.
“We offer a choice of dates for courses in both English and Welsh in a number of training venues across Mid and South Wales. We invite feedback from clients and evaluation so far shows that courses have been very well received.
“We will continue to deliver Welsh courses to anyone asking for them and people are offered a choice of attending a course on either a weekday or Saturday to meet the needs of as many clients as possible.”
The courses backed by the Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership, are already in place in many police forces across the UK including North Wales. They started in the Dyfed Powys, Gwent and South Wales police force areas last year.
TTC 2000, part of the award winning TTC Group, are driver training specialists educating hundreds of thousands of the nation’s motorists each year.
