Manitoba Public Insurance is changing its driver education training program so that when youth are newly behind the wheel they will know how to face gravel roads.

The move comes less than a month after Tyler Klassen's death. The 16-year-old Steinbach boy was killed when he lost control trying to pass another car on a gravel road. Klassen was wearing a seatbelt and police say alcohol was not a factor. Klassen got his driver's license only two days before he was killed.

MPI spokesman Brian Smiley said as of September 2017 in-car gravel road training will be a mandatory part of curriculum.

"We aren't quite sure how that is going to look in terms of how the instructors are going to handle that," Smiley said.

Currently, students get 34 hours of classroom instruction, eight hours behind the wheel and eight hours of in-car observation, Smiley said.

He said that, especially for new drivers, it's important they know what to expect on a gravel road — the feel of the vehicle, how it manoeuvres and how to deal with dust.

He said it still needs to be determined whether it will be mandatory for students to have the wheel on a gravel road, or simply be driven by an instructor.

"The instructor will have to make a decision at that time. We don't want to put our young drivers in a situation where it will make them fearful or make them nervous. We want them to succeed when they're learning to drive," he said.