Brush up on your diving skills

Go for a few dives, try out some skill circuits, focus on weak areas. Include skills with time and/or distance requirements such as hovering, Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascents (everyones fav), Navigation etc. Many students find ascents and descents some of the more challenging skills to teach to standard, try and get a handle on these.

If you get the chance assist on some courses, a great chance to demo and perform skills under an instructors supervision, make sure you get feedback. You’ll find most instructors will be more than happy for your assistance, it’s a win win.

Check youtube for both good and bad examples of skill demonstrations, try and understand the difference between the two by knowing the performance requirement and reviewing the skill in PADI’s guide to teaching manual.

Get a head full of dive theory and standards

This may come as a suprise to some but you do not learn dive theory during the IDC, you need a firm grasp on this before the IDC starts. If you do need some remedial training talk to us about this and we can schedule some time before the IDC.

You will be tested on both PADI standards and theory during your Instructor Exam, you will feel a lot better about this if you have put the pre study hours in. PADI’s diver knowledge workbook, encyclopedia of recreational diving and divemaster exams are great study tools, also dive theory online is an excellent resource available from e-learning at PADI.com.

Go over them again and again until you are comfortable with all topics, aim to get 100% every time. You will spend time on this during the IDC but it would be unwise not to study in advance. Once your IDC booking is confirmed your Course Director will send you some pre study packs for both theory and Standards.

Once you confirm your program with us you will be given access to our online classroom where more study tools are available to you.

Do your homework

Complete all course pre-work in the guide to teaching, you will have plenty of tasks to keep yourself occupied during the IDC, don’t put this off till then. All parts of the appendix in the guide to teaching must be completed before the IDC starts.

This is the perfect opportunity to get really familiar with both the guide to teaching and the instructor manual. You do not need to memorize the books, but you should be able to find what you’re looking for in a reasonable amount of time (think exam questions).

Sort your dive gear out

You are not required to have brand new shiny dive gear, although that’s fine if you do. It should as a minimum be fully functional and in a good state of repair. Remember Instructors are expected to be role models, leaking dive equipment held together by duct tape and cable ties might make you stand out a bit at the Instructor Exams for the wrong reasons.

If you are investing in new equipment make sure you get a chance to use it several times before the IDC, if you find it unsuitable replace it. You should be in possession of a complete set of equipment as described in the PADI Instructor manual, if you do not have access to this right now email the Course Director for a list.

Take a pre-IDC workshop

Many IDC centers sell these workshops as an added extra, we consider it an essential part of your course and include it in your program free of charge. This is a great opportunity for you and the staff to get to know each other and assess your comfort and ability level and fix any problems before the program begins.

During these workshops we look at core skills and make sure they are at a demonstration quality level, cover some of the more challenging skills such as ascents, descents, controlled emergency swimming ascents and much more.

Start job hunting

Assume success, get the resume ready and make yourself known to all the dive centers you can find. You’ll be available for work roughly 10 days after passing your Instructor exams, you may as well get a head start on the other candidates. The PADI website and others with classified forums are great sources of information and for getting your name out.

We provide assistance with Job placement to all of our candidates, we are well known in the industry for turning out well trained and capable dive professionals. Assistance with resume preparation is available to those that need it, once done we will circulate it among our contacts on your behalf. When we hear of new job opportunities our past and present candidates are the first to hear about them.

Book early

Last minute bookings often mean last minute study sessions, let us know in advance when you want to train so we can get you started with a study schedule today. Anyone booking 30 days or more in advance can take advantage of our early bird incentives, contact us for details.