Considering internship IDC course based around Thailand

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Hi there,

I am a PADI Advanced Open Water Scuba Diver. I live in Dublin, Ireland as a tour guide with Guinness. I have spent 7 years in the job but I am now considering moving on to greener pastures. I really enjoy diving but hardly ever get the chance to go unless pool sessions as I work most weekends and study part time. I want to take a break from Ireland and travel a bit as I have never been further than Egypt or the States.

I was recently looking up Divemaster/IDC internships in Thailand. A lot of the searches were coming back with Koh Tao being the best place to go. I have researched many of the dive centres and will be looking to get in contact to look at certain infrmation (e.g. cost, accommodation, food etc). There is a lot I would have to consider as I would be giving up a great job here and would think of the possibility of staying in the dive industry and teaching.

Can anyone in some shape or form point me in the right direction? Maybe top 5 dive centres to take course with or is there options besides Koh Tao? I want to get this right if I am to do this. It might not happen for another while but to start getting up and running would be great.

Any advice would be great. Cheers.
 
Hope you enjoy your planned change, and Thailand really is a great place to spend an extended break.

Having said that I would question the wisdom of doing an internship at one location, it all depends on what you want to achieve, if you want a few months diving and the qualification is incidental, maybe an internship is ok, but all too often internships produce second rate 'dive professionals' with limited experience. If you are planning a career in diving, personally I would recommend that you split your training with different shops, locations and instructors in order to learn from a more broad base of experiences.

Either way if you are planning to spend an extended time in Thailand, no need to commit yourself or pre book anything, far better to get here and look around try some shops out and find one that particularly suits you, talk to the staff and instructors and get first hand feedback. Nothing worse than commiting your time and a considerable sum of money only to find you dont like the location selected, dont get on with the instructors, or simply find an internship course is really not for you.

Most that do such courses on gap years etc will recommend the shop that they trained with, yes they may have had a great time doing their course. But the simple fact is that many are really not best placed to offer a worthwhile recommendation because they have limited or no knowledge of any other dive operation to use as a comparison with their own experiences. Also many do such courses and then go back to a 'normal' life back at home and never or seldom dive again. Far better to judge yourself based on your own experience and requirements.

Also beware of shops that 'promise' paid employment on completion of your course, there are so many that complete internships, simple numbers dictate that there will not be employment within Thailand for most. Also paid employment as a DM is virtually unheard of in Thailand unless done illegally as it is almost impossible to obtain a work permit for such employment, and shops that do internships use their intern's as divemasters whilst they are themselves training. May sound rediculous but I actually met two guys in Pattaya who paid to work for a dive operator as divemasters!!

What ever you decide good luck and enjoy.
 
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Thanks lord khram. Thought of moving around never actually occurred to me but now I'm quite intrigued. What would be good areas to extend my dive career? Would like to get as much out of all courses as I can. Have always strived to better myself at all jobs undertaken so would want to learn from the best.
 
Reality check: Retention rate for instructors is about 5% over 2 years. For most, it's a short lived 'career'. Low pay, bad conditions and the realities of the job see most people leave the industry once the initial buzz has worn off, or the money runs out.

The 'dive pro' employment market is over-run with instructors. Supply far exceeds demand. This puts the ball firmly in the court of employers - hence, the prevalence of low paid commission-only work or even 'work for free/experience' jobs. Promises of post-course 'employment' are normally (virtually always) along those lines.

I want to get this right if I am to do this. It might not happen for another while but to start getting up and running would be great.

To do it 'right':

1) Accumulate 200-300 dives in a breadth of environments before you attempt your divemaster course. You have to be an accomplished diver, before you can realistically hope to lead other divers.

2) Focus on your divemaster course and don't rush it. It's the foundation of your pro-level diving expertise. Fast-track courses will leave you with knowledge/experience gaps. It's worth considering doing this part-time/weekends in your home location, over an extended time period. Eeek out every bit of experience you can from this process.

3) Work as a divemaster for another few hundred dives minimum, before going for your IDC. Leap-frogging past divemaster is self-defeating. It isn't a hurdle to be sprinted past... it's the cornerstone of your professional experience.

4) Take supplementary courses to improve your diving skill and experience well above the 'norm'. Be a stand-out diver. 'Fundamentals' is a good basis. Technical diving training, even if you don't do the dives, can develop top-level expertise.

5) Learn one or more additional languages. These are top employment gainers in most holiday markets, especially in Asia.

6) Learn how to service kit (become a qualified service technician with one or more brands, if possible). Learn compressor maintenance, gas blending etc.

7) Take your IDC only once you have achieved exemplary dive skills, a wealth of varied experience and are completely comfortable with dive leadership. By this time, you should have dealt with a few emergencies, learned how the industry works, understand the best and worst of dive practices.... started to form your own opinions and strategies on what makes an effective dive instructor.

8) Post-IDC, expect to spend several years earning virtually zero. Budget accordingly. During this time, accumulate several hundred training certifications and several thousand logged dives. Use this time to learn - observe and share with other instructors, research your diving, look at what other agencies do...and why.

9) Develop your teaching expertise by gaining some specialty instructor ratings. Choose specialties that you have a genuine passion about. Needless to say, you need the experience to know what diving areas you are passionate about... Establish a reputation for being excellent...a subject matter expert... in those areas.

10) Network effectively. You'll get most work offers via friends/network rather than simply being one of 00,000 applicants sending an email/cv to dive centers. At any given point, you're in competition with thousands of other instructors for a potential job... they all have instructor credentials. Some will have thousands of dives, dozens of specialties with experience in numerous countries etc. Always consider your own dive pro CV... and how to make it stand above the rest.
 
To reiterate what Andi said above- your Divemaster course is extremely important. It is here where you should learn how to 'control' groups underwater, pre-empting problems before they occur.

The easy part of the diving day is the couple of hours you spend underwater. The work begins and finishes on land, leading to happy guests that will remember you. Again as Andi has pointed out already, nothing is better than personal connections.

Already you have experience as a guide- this is a good start.
 
also agree what Andy said above ..

i did an Internship also in Thailand .. in Phuket .. and was the best time of my life .... really good ......

i enjoy my life now working in the Maldives ... :)

be careful with Koh Tao reputation of Scuba Factory ... in my case i was the only Intern at the Dive Centre, .. and all the Instructors around me really took good care of me ...

i also did my IDC with them ... and did not regret a single day or a single Bhat spend :)

Petr
 
I also did my PADI IDC on Koh Tao - it's a great learning environment, as the huge flow of learner divers allows you to get involved a lot. That said, I was already a BSAC instructor when I went out to Thailand..and had completed my DM over 18 months in the UK. I also had ~450 dives and 10 years diving experience, including technical diving qualifications. It was more about learning the PADI instructional system than learning to teach...and it certainly wasn't about learning to be a diver.

Where Koh Tao often falls down is on quality. The IDCs are good, no doubt - my course director (Matt Boulton, Crystal Divers) was excellent. Not so with the student-level courses... the majority of dive centers on KT do run 'bare minimum' courses: 2-3 days, high student-instructor ratios and (IMHO) very low performance standards/mastery expectation for students. Attendance courses, in the worst way. As a newly qualified instructor, it'd be very easy to get into some seriously bad habits there.... if you didn't already have a solid foundation of dive experience and professionalism.
 
Thanks lord khram. Thought of moving around never actually occurred to me but now I'm quite intrigued. What would be good areas to extend my dive career? Would like to get as much out of all courses as I can. Have always strived to better myself at all jobs undertaken so would want to learn from the best.

Devon Diver really has said everything I could and more, also being an instructor and actually completing the courses he is maybe better qualified to advise on specifics relating to training. My comments are based entirely on my experiences as a diving customer and the 'dive professionals' I have come into contact with as such. Obviously some who complete these fast track courses will go on to become excelent instructors, but there are also a large element that are simply incompetent and there are those that are clearly only in it for their own 'jollies' and dont take good care of customers ascined to them.

As DD sugested, if you are serious about working in diving long term build up a broad base of experience at differing locations over a period of time, doesn't really matter where as long as you are gaining something from it, then when you are looking for employment, just like in any career your level of experience will set you aside from those that have simply completed a crash course over a few months, but have no real experience. Also such levels of commitment will demonstrate how seriously you are taking your chosen career.

With regard to 'good areas', it is difficult to make specific recommendations, for instance Koh Tao as you suggest is very popular, but from my personal point of view whilst I have enjoyed a few short trips there it is not a place where I would want to spend an extended period, many feel differently, we are all different and have our own requirements. Just build up a broad base of experiences along the way, travel around Thailand and try different locations, its not all about the diving, there are so many other things you can enjoy along the way.

One good idea particularly whilst doing the DM course would be to go with one of the more busy shops so you get lots of hands on experience looking after actual customers, rather than simply having a course tought to you from a manual, but this needs to be balanced with the time and commitment the chosen DC puts towards your training, many seem to view Divemasters in training as 'paying' labour, this indeed could make Koh Tao a good choice. Also you can observe, interact with and learn from other dive professionals whilst they are going about their work. All diving experiences are beneficial, even the bad ones can be learned from.

Another thing to bear in mind if you do decide on Thailand, is that different locations have differing dive seasons due to weather and other factors so this is something worth researching once you know when you are planning to go, and to a point this could influence your decision. If you do decide on KT, always worth spending some time on the West (Andaman) coast, by far the best diving to be had in Thailand.
 
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I would just like to say thanks to all the great reply's I received!! I didn't think i would get such a great response and is wonderful to see so many people trying to steer people like myself in the right direction. After reading all the info I definitely agree with Andy. Terrific advice and really inspired me to get out there and do as many dives now as I can over the next few months just to see how I improve. I have heard continuing my diving in Ireland maybe beneficial as the conditions here are a lot tougher and would increase my skills with varying degrees of difficulty.

On a side note just before I received the other posts today my local dive center sent me a mail about PADI Go-Pro and how there is a big demand for instructors overseas. Oh the dive irony!

Thanks again to everyone!
 
PADI Go-Pro and how there is a big demand for instructors overseas.

I'm not sure if that's an outright lie... or just a clever manipulation of statistics.

Retention rate of instructors is low, so there's always a turn-around of staff in dive centers. That doesn't equate to demand though... not in the sense of 'supply versus demand'.

Alternatively, it may be based on specific regional needs. For instance, here in the Philippines there is a demand for instructors. That wouldn't help you get work though - because the work permit situation here virtually prevents foreigners getting a diving job (work permit is unaffordable on a dive instructor income). The places you can feasibly work, there tends to be far more instructors than jobs.

As an example, when I was working in Borneo (Sipidan/Mabul), the dive center advertised a vacancy. One vacancy. Several thousand applicants emailed... all of them qualified PADI instructors.

Personally... I think all this marketing of 'careers' is border-line fraud.

There were 8 people on my IDC. As far as I know, only 2 of us remain as active instructors. One is a course director now. I'm a freelance technical diving instructor. We're only still in the industry because we continued to further invest vast quantities of money into our training. All the others either ran out of money and went home penniless, got burnt-out teaching endless back-to-back open water courses, or simply got fed-up with living an ultra-frugal existence.

Don't underestimate the sacrifices involved. Forget about smartphones, cars, designer clothes, treating your girlfriend to an expensive birthday meal...etc etc. Most new dive instructors in Asia are green-faced jealous of the 'high-fliers' on a big salary... flipping burgers at McDonalds...

A quick glance at the PADI 'Undersea Journal' reveals the true situation. Each year it publishes a list of 5, 10 and 25 year members. Assess those figures...it gives an honest idea of what proportion of the 000's of instructors trained annually manage to stay in the business....
 
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