Change your life--become a scuba instructor: Step 5, Instructor Development Course & Instructor Exam

This is part 5 in a series about how to become a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor.

Ok, you're in the home stretch. You're a PADI Divemaster or scuba leader from another agency and you're about to enroll in a PADI Instructor Development Course. Your life has undergone a lot of changes, from non-diver to diver to advanced to rescue to Divemaster. You want to share your love of exploration by teaching divers. Just two more steps left, the PADI Instructor Development Course and the PADI Instructor Examination. Let's take a look at both.

There are several parts of the PADI Instructor Development Course. Much like the Divemaster program, there is both a knowledge development component and a practical component. Knowledge development can be a combination of online training and classroom or entirely classroom. Here are the topics:

• Learning, Instruction and the PADI System
• General Standards and Procedures (2 parts)
• Risk Management (2 parts)
• Marketing Diving
• Start Diving
• Teaching PADI Specialty Courses
• Business of Diving
• Keep Diving
• How to teach the Recreational Dive Planner(tm) [optional]
• Developing knowledge development presentations
• Teaching in confined water
• Conducting open water training dives
• Open Water Diver Course
• Adventures in Diving Courses
• Rescue Diver Course
• Divemaster Course

So, you learn how to teach in the classroom, pool and open water dives, and you practice all of those multiple times. Beyond that, you're introduced to the four core course areas (Open Water Diver, Adventures, Rescue and Divemaster) and we discuss how to conduct those programs. Since you're looking at this as a career change, we want to make sure you understand the business side of things in a Business of Diving presentation as well as talking about Risk Management. Risk management starts with keeping your student divers safe and then protecting your legal backside.

As part of your teaching practice, you'll give at least three(3) knowledge development presentations (typically from different classes you'd be able to teach as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor), four(4) confined water/pool skill presentations and two open water presentations that integrate 2 skills on each dive.

Other performance requirements:

• an 800yd/m mask/snorkel/fin swim (not timed, but no stopping)
• Systems, Standards and Procedures exam (open book) to make sure you know where to find details in your PADI Instructor manual, e.g. how many students can you take in the pool, how many on an open water dive, what if they are 10-11 years old, etc.
• Dive Theory Exams (closed book) testing your knowledge of diving physics, physiology, diving equipment, dive skills and the environment and using the Recreational Dive Planner(tm).
• Demonstrate the 20 basic diving skills at demonstration-quality levels.
• Demonstrate your ability to perform a rescue of an unresponsive diver at the surface.

If you complete the online training, then an IDC only has to be 5 days long. If your PADI Course Director, who conducts an IDC, teaches all components, the IDC has to be a minimum of 7 days long. In reality, most Course Directors like to take a bit more time rather than the minimum required time. A PADI IDC is probably the only PADI course that has a minimum time requirement, but like all PADI courses it is performance based. That means there is no maximum number of attempts you can make at passing the parts of the course. Of course, your Course Director might council you if it is taking an inordinately long amount of time.

As for materials:

• You should have a complete set of dive equipment. Refer to your PADI Instructor manual for the complete list. Mask, snorkel, fins, appropriate exposure suit, BCD, regulator, tank, surface signalling devices (one visible, one audible), dive tool, etc.
• An IDC crewpak, which includes a copy of the PADI Specialty Instructor manual, slates for teaching Open Water, Adventures in Diving, Rescue and Divemaster plus lesson preparation slates, and a slew of other materials you'll need during the IDC. One of the most important items is PADI's Guide to Teaching. This is a living manual that covers teaching techniques and course philosophy; it is a long term reference for all instructors.
• A PADI Instructor Manual: This is included in the Divemaster Crewpak and is also available as a free download for current PADI members. It isn't included in the IDC Crewpak.

People often ask me, "You've been teaching scuba for 18 years and are a PADI Course Director. Why do you still use slates when you teach?" Easy, so I don't forget anything. I still use my slates and I still reference the Guide to Teaching for teaching techniques.

During the PADI Instructor Development Course, your PADI Course Director will give you a lot of advice and guidance to develop your teaching style and to make sure you hit all of the events of learning that make up an effective presentation. That goes for classroom, pool and open water. Course Directors, like anyone else, tend to be a trifle biased about our candidates by the time they reach the end of an IDC. To ensure that new PADI Instructors are well trained, PADI conducts Instructor Examinations. These are objective evaluations of your knowledge (written exams) and abilities (teaching assignments). Conducted over two days, they comprise:

• Knowledge Development teaching assignment
• Confined Water/pool teaching assignment
• Open Water teaching assignment
• Dive Theory written exams--same topics as in the IDC, physics, physiology, equipment, RDP and dive skills and the environment.
• Standards exam--open book, like the IDC. Again, to make sure you know where to find standards and procedures in your instructor manual
• Skill circuit: an abbreviated set of skills to show your ability to demonstrate skills
• Rescue assessment: an evaluation of your abilities to conduct a rescue, in case it is ever really needed as well as to see if you can demonstrate skills for your Rescue Diver students.

It can be a daunting two days. My advice is to relax as much as possible and try to have fun. You'll be surrounded by other instructor candidates just like you. Talk to them, practice your presentations with them, get to know them. They are your support group during the IDC and may turn out to be your support group as you start teaching.

You've completed the IDC. You breezed through the IE because you were well prepared. You're a freshly minted PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. Done with classes and time to teach, right?

WRONG!

Remember, this is a career change. You need to be marketable. Your scuba classes need to stand out a bit from what other instructors offer. How do you do that?

First, a bit more training might be in order. Learning to each the DAN(Divers Alert Network) Diving First Aid programs and adding them to a complete Rescue Diver Package can add a lot of value to your programs and make those Rescue Divers even better prepared to respond to a problem. Or, maybe it's taking some PADI Specialty Instructor training to be able to teach Dry Suit Diving if you live/work around colder water, or Altitude Diving if you live/work in the mountains (or anywhere 1000ft/300m above sea level). If you're off to work at a dive resort, being able to work on boat engines or compressors can be a great asset.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be teaching. What you should look towards is team-teaching with another instructor, preferably more experienced. You'll learn a lot from their insight and their own techniques.

Teach...train...teach...train... Learning never stops. Make sure you take a class periodically just to refresh your memory of how it feels to be the student.

In my next article, I'll discuss the various next steps your diving career might take. Till then, Happy Diving!