Depending what you mean by "in the scuba business", the government in the UK, in the form of one of its agencies, IS already there. And actually it doesn't work badly.
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Depending what you mean by "in the scuba business", the government in the UK, in the form of one of its agencies, IS already there. And actually it doesn't work badly.
"What happens elsewhere in the world is simply that the government chooses to recognize certain agencies and then limits non-recognized agencies from teaching.
At the most, the devolve authority for monitoring these agencies to a third-party sanctioning agency or watchdog. The RSTC would be a likely candidate, for example.
Very little cost to the government, taxpayer, agency or customer.
They utilise the expertise that exists within the industry and delegate supervision to those that understand it best."
"Same result. Same safety statistics. Same quality of courses."
Jim as far as I can tell people are free to join together to teach each other sports. Doing that as part of a club is certainly one way and has some advantages over commercial instruction. Clubs at least potentially can offer more instruction and more one-on-one instruction than will be offered by most commercial classes. Is it safe? Well honestly I do not see novices swimming around in a pool as terribly dangerous. It is certainly not risk free, what in life is? The liability release form signed at the start of every scuba class, including yours Im sure, is testimony that it is not risk free. But if the club is more dangerous than commercial instruction that case has not been made in your posts. Is the instruction offered by the club of good quality? I have no idea, and given that all you have is second hand information I suspect you do not either. At the very least the students are getting a step up on the academic and skills sections of their training.
The biggest issue you seem to have is that the club is not following the system your agency has set up. But they are under no obligation to do so. You may be disturbed that there are people are out there teaching who did not spend a lot of time, and a lot of money, just like you did. But disturbing as it may be they do not have to. The requirements of your agency are not mandatory for everyone else. The student was just seeking a credential from you. You can test and evaluate and grant a credential, or not, or remediate as you see fit. And if the students do not like your approach they can look elsewhere.
Jim,
Just out of curiosity... What did you tell the student who initially called you?
K