...the catch is I'm doing this so I can hopefully be employed by the centre that trains me..
"Employment" as a dive Instructor is an interesting proposition anywhere, but on Roatan, certain things are magnified and make your goal very difficult.
You have to first buy into one of my "Bitter Truths of Diving".... Scuba diving, in terms of the professional path, is a pyramid shaped diagram. The best chance at survival (employment) occurs as you pass towards the top-point and well beyond the basic OWSI level.
There are a few good Scuba schools on Roatan, but they (as do
most such paradise-located schools) share the same problem-
economy of scale.
There is enough traffic to keep a Course Director busy enough that he can run a successful operation- but only if he is willing to wear a DM's hat when need be. This puts the then redundant DM's and AI, OWSI's at a real employment disadvantage.
Translation? If you are a CD and not right-now teaching (anything), you better hope that there are trips for you to lead. So- once a CD trains you to be a DM or OWSI, once you pay to assume the role of DM on a dive that he is offering to divers, once you have attained that rank, then the CD will take over that role if he can and save money. Everybody likes to keep busy.
How does this affect you? If you achieve your OWSI in a low volume area, then you will be competing for jobs that can also be grabbed by guys with DM status... the established business owner Instructors are already there ahead of you and have a stream of students.
This is where it helps to look like one of 007's Girls in a rubber suit. Surprisingly, a disproportionate number of cute girls seem to acquire dive instructor skills very quickly, making them more employable than any one else. :shocked2:
Get your OWSI wherever- Roatan is just fine, but try and get work at heavy volume areas such as Cayman, Nassau, Freeport/Lucaya, Caribbean Liveabaoards. These are high turnover and a few places where a British citizenship might not be so much an issue. Places such as Cozumel might seem to fit into that mold until you consider the level of competition for those jobs and also the lack of need for any certifications.