Becoming a PADI Instructor

[Divetech99]

Hi, hopefully I can get some advice and counsel from those who made the leap from DM to OWSI.

Im currently a PADI DM and looking to take IDC/IE. Some questions:

1. PADI says 4 days training for the Asst Instructor and another 4 days for the OWSI course. Then 2 days for the IE. Other than the book work, how many required confined and open water dives are there for the IDC and IE?

2. What were the challenging portions of the IDC for you? What was involved in the IE?

3. Do you recommend taking the specialties instructor trainings immediately after? What specialties did you select?

Thanks

 

[DENLASCUBA]

When I did my IDC we were in the pool almost every day practicng and being evaluated by both the CD and Staff Instructor to prepar us for the exams.

In the beginning it was just a lot of review and remembering items from my DM course that I had tucked away far back in my memory. Once you start you will start to remember it all again, granted you had a good instructor who taught a good DM course.

Follow the link and it will go over everything about the IDC/IE
PADI IE - Instructor Examination

I would take at least the nitrox specialty course as this is generall the most popular specialty and an easy sell at least here in Thailand. Some centers will offer a package price for multiple spec instructor ratings. I would stay away from paying for your MSDT though,many students pay shops (they pay to teach, the shop does not pay you) so they can get this rating when you can do it yourself but may take a little longer.

 

[Divetech99]

Thank you. Most helpful. .

 

[DENLASCUBA]

I also took the online PADI IDC course since I was stationed abroad and wanted to ensure I was fully prepared before starting my IDC and may not make the first two days. IDCs will generally have a 2 day prep before hand which will also cover what the online PADI course covers so the CD can gauge what he is working with and ensure all students receive the best training possible.

The he biggest issues I have seen students struggling with are phsyics and physiology. The next is students forgetting some of their rescue training or not feeling confident enough at first since their rescue course may have been years ago as you will have to demonstrate rescue skills. EFR is also another part I have seen students forget bits and pieces, this will be conducted by the CD and you will be able to receive a good refresher before becoming an EFR instructor. The EFR inst will not be part of the IE. I would also suggest the Emergency Oxygen specially course as well. I would also suggest practicing your knots as this may come up during your IE.

Most importantly do your research about the center and instructor you want to have your IDC with, some are better than others and have different backgrounds in diving. Visit with the CD that will be training you and any staff instructors as well.nif you plan to work at he center that trains you after talk to them throughly, get all the facts/info before you start.

It it can be a bit intimidating, nerve racking at first but have fun with it,Mathis can be an very enjoyable course with the right instructor and classmates.

 

[ElGaucho]

Hi, hopefully I can get some advice and counsel from those who made the leap from DM to OWSI.
1. PADI says 4 days training for the Asst Instructor and another 4 days for the OWSI course. Then 2 days for the IE. Other than the book work, how many required confined and open water dives are there for the IDC and IE?

No Open Water dives really, and not so much Confined Water dives per se but generally you will work on your demo quality skills, some "make believe" student control/supervision tests, Rescue exercise number 7 (unresponsive diver on the surface), and maybe unresponsive diver in the bottom and a few other tidbits here and there.

2. What were the challenging portions of the IDC for you? What was involved in the IE?

The dive knowledge seems daunting, but then PADI tests are ... not very demanding. But you need to do, and re do, and re do a lot of the exams, fake exams, diving knowledge workbook until all the answers sink in. It does take some time, and you can start earlier by downloading the guides available on the internet, the diving knowledge workbook, reading through the Encylopedia again, etc.

3. Do you recommend taking the specialties instructor trainings immediately after? What specialties did you select?

No unless you take something like an MSDT Internship and then you get to team teach classes. Large CDC centers usually have this option and it can finish tying off the whole "how to teach experience". I would do it for the team teaching experience more than the useless specialties (in terms of learning at least).


Thanks[/QUOTE]

 

[scoobydrew]

Hi, hopefully I can get some advice and counsel from those who made the leap from DM to OWSI.

Im currently a PADI DM and looking to take IDC/IE. Some questions:

1. PADI says 4 days training for the Asst Instructor and another 4 days for the OWSI course. Then 2 days for the IE. Other than the book work, how many required confined and open water dives are there for the IDC and IE?

2. What were the challenging portions of the IDC for you? What was involved in the IE?

3. Do you recommend taking the specialties instructor trainings immediately after? What specialties did you select?

Thanks

1) I would not really think about the IDC structure in the same way as other PADI courses you have done. There should be as many confined and open water dives as are required for the candidate to be comfortable with what they are doing before being put through to the IE. An 8 day IDC (AI & OWSI) is about the minimum allowance, you will find many places offering extended programs lasting over 2 weeks.

2) For me it was public speaking. The knowledge development presentations have a criteria of things to be covered. When I did my IE I struggled to find a natural way for me to cover these points while keeping the presentation flowing. People normally have trouble on KD presentations, theory exams and then skills like CESA & lift bag (knots). In preparation I would set about making sure you are up to speed with the theory, in particular the physics and physiology chapters, learn your knots, refresh yourself on the RDP and try to get some pool time to go over the Open Water course skills.

3) Depends on what your plans post IDC are. If you want to get work straight away then in many places having specialty ratings will help you. Bear in mind that once you have certified 25 people then you can self certify yourself as a specialty instructor for most specialties provided you can prove you have enough experience (logged dives) in that area. If you do go for a SI course then get nitrox as it is the most popular PADI specialty (so your best chance of getting work)

Good luck

 

[RJP]

1. PADI says 4 days training for the Asst Instructor and another 4 days for the OWSI course. Then 2 days for the IE. Other than the book work, how many required confined and open water dives are there for the IDC and IE?

As someone mentioned above, there are no CW or OW "dives" per se in the IDC, but you will be spending a fair bit of time in the water... as well as the classroom. Below are the IDC course requirements. I copied the info below from the same website link DENLASCUBA posted, so it might not be 100% correct but it looks about right to me:

• Attend and participate in all 17 curriculum presentations (8 of these may be done via e-learning.). There are an additional 2 optional presentations.
• Present at least three evaluated knowledge development teaching presentations and score a 3.5 or higher on at least two presentations.
• Present at least four evaluated confined water teaching presentations and score a 3.4 or higher on at least two presentations.
• Present at least two integrated (two skills each, four total) evaluated open water teaching presentations and score a 3.4 or higher on each skill in at least one of the integrated presentations.
• Demonstrate competence at performing all 20 dive skills listed on the Skill Evaluation. Candidates must earn 68 total points, with no individual score below 3.
• Perform a face down, nonstop swim for 800 meters/yards using a mask, snorkel and fins.
• Score 75 percent or higher on all five sections of the Dive Theory Exams.
• Score 75 percent or higher on the PADI Systems, Standards and Procedures Exam and have any missed questions reviewed until mastery is achieved. Scores less than 75 percent require a retest.

I think I probably spent the equivalent of 6-7 full days doing the IDC stuff listed above. The shop where I trained is very rigorous, and basically made us repeat anything that didn't score at least a 4. I don't think anything about the IDC or IE was particularly difficult... for anyone who is prepared. I had been an active DM for the same rigorous shop for five years before starting the IDC, so I was very dialed in. There were two other candidates in my IDC who were crossing over from SDI. I think they came in assuming they'd just stroll right through... which wasn't the case at all. The combination of not being prepared, and needing to undo bad habits really caused them to struggle.

The best advice I got was "just teach" and everything will be fine. The IDC/IE aren't about evaluating your diving ability. They are about evaluating your ability to TEACH diving to others. But more than that, they are specifically evaluating your ability to teach "the PADI way." The PADI teaching methodology is very straightforward and makes a lot of sense... once you accept and embrace it. And why wouldn't you if you're trying to become a PADI instructor? If you try to resist it, add to it, leave anything out, etc you'll have a hard time.

It sounds corny... but do try to enjoy the whole thing!

---------- Post added January 7th, 2015 at 02:22 PM ----------

1)

2) For me it was public speaking. The knowledge development presentations have a criteria of things to be covered. When I did my IE I struggled to find a natural way for me to cover these points while keeping the presentation flowing.

As important as keeping the Knowledge Development presentations flowing is making sure they don't flow TOO LONG! Many folks at my IE just went on, and on, and on. And the got poor scores. The purpose of the teaching presentations is to evaluate "how well you can teach" rather than "how much you know."

As I mentioned above, you need to embrace the teaching approach. I am not bothered at all by public speaking; I've spoken to audiences of thousands, been on radio and TV, presented to Fortune 500 CEOs and boards of directors with no problem. But when I tell you I fumphered and stammered and struggled on my first few practice KD presentations I mean I really struggled. And that was just presenting to the two Course Directors at the shop... guys I've know for years! For me it was that I felt that the PADI approach wasn't "my style" so I was really forcing my square peg into their round hole. One I got comfortable with the approach, it's was much easier.

 

[Divetech99]

Wow. Thanks for all the valuable insights guys. A lot to think about.

I heard that the exam is open book . Can I use a laptop or iPad with the instructor manual in pdf form so I can just "search" for the reference sections during the IE exam?

 

[DownbelowDiver]

1.Other than the book work, how many required confined and open water dives are there for the IDC and IE?

2. challenging portions of the IDC for you? What was involved in the IE?

3. Do you recommend taking the specialties instructor trainings immediately after? What specialties did you select?

Thanks

Hey Divetech99

You will find taking the leap to become a PADI Instructor can be incredibly exciting and offer a lot of career fulfilment

So to answer your first question:
When you say 'book work', do you mean dive theory?
Any dive theory that you learn during the PADI Instructor Development Course, is all the knowledge development that encompasses the PADI system of diver education from the Open Water course to the Divemaster course. So you don't learn anything 'new', because you are developing your existing skills as a Divemaster to teach others effectively.
To begin the IDC, candidates require by PADI standards to have 60 logged dives and to enrol on the PADI Instructor Examination, 100 logged dives.
The performance requirement of the IDC and IE is based on open water and confined water teaching presentations, and you need to score an average of 3.4 on two different confined water dive skills and 3.4 on two open water skills in one single teaching presentation.
I would suggest more time than the 8-day minimum for professional dive training so you are as fully prepared as possible for immediate instructional work in the dive industry.

You second question:
Most challenging for most candidates in my experience as an IDC Staff Instructor with the Downbelow Go PRO team of PADI Instructor Trainers, is the knowledge development presentations of which you need to achieve a score of 3.4 on two presentations.
It's challenging for anyone, even if they might have a lot of experience with public speaking, because you need time to practise following the outline of a lesson plan format to successfully achieve those points. Feedback from the Go PRO team is really valuable to improve scores on the knowledge development teaching presentations!

For your third question:
It is highly competitive in the dive industry, as far as instructional work, because there are many dive instructor in general. Many instructors may speak a variety of world languages and are able to cater to a wide variety of clients, and being qualified in popular dive disciplines, such as enriched air diving or underwater photography, will broaden your instructional skills and make you a much more attractive employee to a dive centre operation.
My own PADI Specialty Instructor ratings were chosen based on what is popular in our own local area here in Sabah, Borneo. That being said, we are not able to conduct certain specialised dive disciplines, such as ice diving - for obvious reasons, that we are based in the tropics!

 

[RJP]

Wow. Thanks for all the valuable insights guys. A lot to think about.

I heard that the exam is open book . Can I use a laptop or iPad with the instructor manual in pdf form so I can just "search" for the reference sections during the IE exam?

The PADI Standards exam is open book. You can use the IM and Guide to Teaching during that exam. I only used the IM - pretty much everything is in there - as I figured it would be more efficient to only have one document to search. . If there were any questions where the very specific answer was in the Guide to Teaching... they must have been among those that were so obvious that I didn't didn't bother looking for them.

Yes, you can use electronic version. Laptop recommend as search on iPad is cumbersome. There are two keys to using the electronic IM:

1. Have a have a solid understanding for how the IM is structured. With an open book exam you don't need to know WHAT the answer is... but it really helps if you know WHERE the answer is. You don't want to have search through the whole document for every question. (This is true if you use printed IM as well.)
2. Have a good feel for proper search terms from a PADI perspective. Looking at a question and being able to figure out what the likely "trigger" words or phrases are makes searching more efficient. (Sometimes they are in the question, but many times they are not.

PS - you should check in at the "Going Pro" and "PADI Pros" forums. You may get more specific answers to other questions you might have along the way.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/going-pro/
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/padi-pros/

(PADI Pros requires you to register by emailing your DM number to one of the moderators.)