Congratulations! You have become an PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. This is not where your career development ends, this is just the beginning. Here at Dive Division on Curacao, the possibilities to develop yourself are endless. It is time to continue the PADI Professional ladder. Remember, if you do what you love, you never work another day in your life! You have worked so hard and should be very proud of yourself. But what are the logical next steps to take? Here are some tips.
Start teaching
You are fresh out of your Instructor Development Course (IDC) and you have all the knowledge to start teaching. Now you can start applying your knowledge. Using each other as guinea pigs during your courses is fun but working with real students is where you get your experience as an instructor. Ask if you can team-teach with a more experienced instructor and gain valuable hands-on experience. Join on different courses to learn useful tips and techniques. This allows you to focus mainly on the teaching and to think about logistics together with the more experienced instructor, so it is not too overwhelming. While team-teaching with different instructors you learn about different teaching styles, how to organize a course and what paperwork you need. Team-teaching is an option if you follow one of our internships.
Specialty Instructor
Advanced courses are amazing to teach! The dives you can do are the first dives of different specialties students can get. But, if you get your students really excited about the specialty, you want to be able to teach them those specialties as well.
Learn to teach multiple specialties that match your interests, that makes it way more fun for you. You must be a specialty instructor for almost all the specialties that you can do as a diver, if you want to be able to teach them. Except for Peak Performance Buoyancy, Project AWARE Specialty and Coral Reef Conservation.
Another rule to keep in mind: There are some additional prerequisites for certain specialty courses. Which ones? This information you can find in your instructor manual, or you can send us an e-mail for more information.
Master Scuba Diver Trainer
Attitude is everything when it comes to teaching. So, the next steps show everyone that you are happy to learn and here to stay. You have to gain enough experience to become a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer. To apply for the MSDT, you need to certify at least 25 students as well as have at least 5 PADI Specialty Instructor ratings. Become a specialty instructor in at least five areas of diving you love. That is how you pass on your love for diving to your student. Do not let anyone tell you, that by becoming MSDT you have better chance of getting a job. It is your passion, attitude and love for diving that lands you the job! Being a MSDT is for you, because you can teach more or can continue up the ladder.
IDC Staff Instructor
If you are living your dream on a beautiful sunny location, like Curacao, you know you have a good life. But why not help others achieve, what you have achieved? ‘Starting by becoming a mentor for future instructors is the best step I ever took!’
The main responsibility of a Staff Instructor is to mentor future dive educators through their training. To be able to do this, you need to have good understanding of the dive theory, the PADI system and for sure great teaching skills. As a Staff Instructor you will recommend teaching techniques to future instructors, therefore your teaching techniques need to be on point.
The PADI IDC Staff Instructor course is an extremely valuable qualification in the dive industry. An IDC Staff Instructor is qualified to assist a PADI Course Director on PADI IDC’s as well as independently teaching the PADI Assistant Instructor course. We run the course throughout the year in conjunction with our IDC’s, which gives you the opportunity to sit in on a whole IDC. With the benefit of applying your new knowledge of how to score a candidate performing, conduct candidate counseling sessions and how to function as a mentor. If you are serious about having a long-term career in the dive industry, the IDC Staff Instructor course is the course for you! This course could also be your first step to becoming a PADI Course Director. Curious when you can join our next IDC for your IDC Staff Instructor course? Just send us an e-mail.
Master Instructor
Become one of the elites of all the instructors by becoming a PADI Master Instructor. It is not so much a course you have to do, but you need to tick a lot of requirement boxes to apply to PADI for this status. It shows you that you are serious and might even want to take it up to the next level after this.
But what do you have to achieve to become a Master Instructor?
- Besides already being a IDC Staff Instructor, you have to be a PADI Instructor for at least two years. And you need to be an active Emergency First Response Instructor.
- Issued 150 PADI certifications at various levels.
- Participated in 3 PADI Seminars.
- Issued 10 Emergency First Response course completion cards.
- Used the complete PADI System of diver education, including all appropriate PADI training materials, when conducting PADI programs.
- Demonstrated support of the PADI organization and have no verified Quality Management violations within the past six months.
A PADI Master Instructor embodies the essence of a true dive professional. By joining this club, you show to be a dive industry leader, who helps to shape the development of future diving. You should be helping your students to reach for the sky. You are the biggest role model they will ever find!
Expand your horizon!
It is never a dull moment if you learn something new! Same goes for the diving industry. There is so much more than just doing courses.
Immerse yourself in Tec Diving, because you will learn more about diving than the recreational limits! Pursue a media career and learn how to edit pictures and videos. Go eco and help save the world and its underwater inhabitants along the away, or maybe learn more about how to maintain equipment or using a compressor.
At Dive Division Curacao we have developed career paths for you to follow to increase your knowledge. Want to know more about that, check out our career internships online.
Let us know how you plan on growing in the dive industry!
Leave a comment below or write us an e-mail
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