The perfect IDC / DM program. What does it look like?

[RainPilot]

So, having looked around at various existing IDC / DM programs around the world and the comments here on the Board, I have a question for the members.

If you were to try to define a perfect IDC / DM facility, what would be on your shopping list?

Some of my criteria to help start:

• Neutral buoyancy teaching
• Choice of useful specialities
• Safe, reasonably priced location
• High standards for safety as well as learning

What are some of yours?

 

[Diving Dubai]

Oh good question

For DM.

HIgher entry level standard. Studnets shoudl be able to demonstrate good buoyancy, trim and propulsion skills.

During the course DM's should learn and master Back kick, helecopter turns, frog and modified frog kick for instance, and have to hold buoyancy in trim within a given window on a safty stop. So they can be real rolemodels

Emphasis on Dive planning (for groups) Seamanship, charts, weather currents and tides, plus basic boatman ship skills ( different types of anchor, shot lines etc. Plus more practice on shore diving

I would suggest (PADI) Tec 40 be a requesit entry course so at least they have some knowlege of decompression diving, and appreciation of technical gear (such as BP/W etc) rather it being a complete mystery.

I would also have a requirement for more speciality skills. You can enter DM program with nothing more than Rescue and AOW (or Deep?) I would prefer that people had a wider experience (Wreck, Current, Certainly Nitrox - dependant on local area. Even fish ID - if you're guiding you need to at least know about the critters in the local area to advise customers, point out andhelp them with their log books

The PADI course obviously has a lot of emphasis on learning and demoing the 24 skills, learning to guide is almost an add on. I would increase the number of dives required for guiding.


Also my personal opinion is that after completion of one course there should be a pre requsit number of dives/hours underwater before you can move on to the next. I know some people will tea bag but the entry requirements should catch that


The DM course should be harder with more theroy (given it's the entry to Pro status) It should be know to be difficult which you can fail. Currently anyone can pass and be a DM, it shoudn't be that way.

It should be a gateway course to filter out those who haven't reached the required diving skill levels. Those that want to aspire to make the grade (and have a meaningful cert) should know that it requires time and effort to reach the required standard in practical and theory.

The bar shoudl be high but achievable if you apply yourself

I can't comment on IDC because I am in the process of it at the moment. One frustration though - is that when you're learning to teach you practise on skilled divers. Yes they throw errors for you to spot, but (as I found) it doesn't prepare you for teaching somone who doesn't get a skill like buoyancy - So perhaps for entry to IDC you need to have assisted with a certain number of courses as a DM over a set period of time and gained some experience there.

Maybe as much as a year post DM cert...

 

[northernone]

Here's a slightly different direction on answering the topic:

Seeking perfection in a dive pro development facility I'd love to see a mentorship modeled program where, upon exit, the DM or instructor have learned a profession and are have been prepared, in every sense of the word, to be a professional.

Including on my resume 'dive master' would be laughable if it was publicly known how easily the designation can be obtained.

In the current model of career development:
-Experienced instructors paid a living wage for teaching other professonals, no commission for upselling or pushing gear purchases.
-A profitable business model with high customer satisfaction.
-Affordable living environment. (I once took a crisis intervention training where the meals and hotel cost multiple times the training costs and I later found out the organizers received a kick back.
-Certifying instructor is 'overqualified' with experience or other professional skills. Not someone who's resume pinnacle is instructor or course director/instructor trainer. The notable exception might be some career dive professionals with a strong personal commitment to continuing education.

I'll also echo the previous posts. Buoyancy, safety, experience, higher standards.

Next to perfect: cheap and fast as possible allowing the newly minted 'PRO' develop their own value and marketable skillset.

This is coming from meeting hundreds (thousands perhaps) dive 'pros'. Many, I wouldn't trust enough to remember to feed my dog if I went out for an afternoon.

Regards,
Cameron

 

[HantsDiver]

HIgher entry level standard. Studnets shoudl be able to demonstrate good buoyancy, trim and propulsion skills.

During the course DM's should learn and master Back kick, helecopter turns, frog and modified frog kick for instance, and have to hold buoyancy in trim within a given window on a safty stop. So they can be real rolemodels

On one hand you want propulsion and buoyancy as an entry standard. And then you want to include them in terms of development. I'm also at a loss as to why you'd need to frog kick to be a good DM. Or to backfin. Neither are overly challenging to do - however why do you impose them as essential?

I would suggest (PADI) Tec 40 be a requesit entry course so at least they have some knowlege of decompression diving, and appreciation of technical gear (such as BP/W etc) rather it being a complete mystery.

I'd agree with this.

Also my personal opinion is that after completion of one course there should be a pre requsit number of dives/hours underwater before you can move on to the next. I know some people will tea bag but the entry requirements should catch that

What about people who have been diving for 20 years - and who then want to teach? Are you going to make them doing some extra practise between DM and instructor?

The DM course should be harder with more theroy (given it's the entry to Pro status) It should be know to be difficult which you can fail. Currently anyone can pass and be a DM, it shoudn't be that way.

What theory do you think a DM needs? Making things harder for the sake of making things harder leads to an arrogance and perceived elitism. The theory required now if fine in my opinion.

I can't comment on IDC because I am in the process of it at the moment. One frustration though - is that when you're learning to teach you practise on skilled divers. Yes they throw errors for you to spot, but (as I found) it doesn't prepare you for teaching somone who doesn't get a skill like buoyancy - So perhaps for entry to IDC you need to have assisted with a certain number of courses as a DM over a set period of time and gained some experience there.

On one hand you are saying the current DM course doesn't produce good enough buoyancy - but then you are saying that the people on your IDC are too good for you to improve. That's a contradiction in my view.

A mentoring role works if you want a small agency and you have instructor candidates who want to spend a lot of time and money becoming an instructor. If you want this there are other agencies that provide it.

 

[HantsDiver]

-Experienced instructors paid a living wage for teaching other professonals, no commission for upselling or pushing gear purchases.

You can get this.

cheap and fast as possible allowing the newly minted 'PRO' develop their own value and marketable skillset.

But you wont get this as well. If it's cheap and quick then more people will do it and drive wages down.

Anyway - all of this is about what you'd want out of a job, not out of a course. I think the current DM/IDC system works well at what it does.

 

[tbone1004]

2 year long mentorship with multiple instructors *similar to the way it is done by the NSS-CDS
mandatory college level educational psychology and science education for middle school level science

You want real instructors, that's the way you have to do it. Anything shorter than that or without the education course component will spit out decent divers that can regurgitate whatever information the agencies want you to regurgitate, but you can't "teach a teacher" in a couple of weeks or months. Just can't do it.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Firstly we were asked for an opinion. I'm not of teh mind to argue, but I will explain my thinking on the points you raised

On one hand you want propulsion and buoyancy as an entry standard. And then you want to include them in terms of development.

I personally think that each progression course shoud include a buoyancy and trim entry and exit. They don't need to be onerious, but it should at least show the candidate has made some progression between courses.

Ive seen plently of DM's who couldn't hold either. As a DM you are supposed to be a role model

I'm also at a loss as to why you'd need to frog kick to be a good DM. Or to backfin. Neither are overly challenging to do - however why do you impose them as essential?

Again you're suppose to be a role model. If you're pointing out a critter - it would help if you could manouver out of the way without sculling or silting up the area. You said yourself these aren't challenging to do, so why not include them?

What about people who have been diving for 20 years - and who then want to teach? Are you going to make them doing some extra practise between DM and instructor?

Just because you are good at something doesn't mean you will be a good teacher. To some teaching comes easy to others (like me) you have to be taught to be a teacher. Once you've completed the DM course (or any course, surely there should be some period of consolidation of what you have learnt before taking the next step? Or are you saying that those peopel with 20 years of experiance know it all already

What theory do you think a DM needs? Making things harder for the sake of making things harder leads to an arrogance and perceived elitism. The theory required now if fine in my opinion.

You agreed that Tec 40 would be a good entry course, so obviously some of that would be in the DM exam to ensure the infromation is retained. I personally felt that they could have been more in depth with the dive theory. It's not to be elitist or arrogant, it's to ensure that the people who qualify have a really good grounding and knowlege.

On one hand you are saying the current DM course doesn't produce good enough buoyancy - but then you are saying that the people on your IDC are too good for you to improve. That's a contradiction in my view.

No, not at all. My point (sorry if it didnt' come accross) is that during training you are "teaching" people who can (or should be able to) carry out the skill. It doesn't prepare you for a novice student who is havign difficulity learning.

I had it myself on a reactivate, the person was struggling with buoyancy. I ran out of ideas of how to effectivily communicate the principles in a different way. In the end it took a much more experienced instructor to re teach this person.

So while you are taught standards and principles you are not taught how to teach. I suspect when I come out of IE I will need further mentorship and assistance while I gain experience of teaching new divers. Being an accomplished instructor takes a great deal of experience and practice.

A mentoring role works if you want a small agency and you have instructor candidates who want to spend a lot of time and money becoming an instructor. If you want this there are other agencies that provide it.

Yes I get your point and somewhat agree. But surely there has to be a mid point? After all someone can "zero to hero" in a year with 100 dives which can't be good either, they may have passed the exams but do they have sufficent foundation experience?

 

[HantsDiver]

Just because you are good at something doesn't mean you will be a good teacher. To some teaching comes easy to others (like me) you have to be taught to be a teacher. Once you've completed the DM course (or any course, surely there should be some period of consolidation of what you have learnt before taking the next step? Or are you saying that those peopel with 20 years of experiance know it all already

DM's don't teach. They can go over stuff already taught. So you are not building experience teaching. If someone with 20 years diving hasn't helped out another diver then I do wonder what they have been doing.

So while you are taught standards and principles you are not taught how to teach. I suspect when I come out of IE I will need further mentorship and assistance while I gain experience of teaching new divers. Being an accomplished instructor takes a great deal of experience and practice.

I agree. But why not do that after the IDC? Plenty of places will let you pay to observe courses after you have done the IDC. There are insurance issues about what they will let you do before it.

Yes I get your point and somewhat agree. But surely there has to be a mid point? After all someone can "zero to hero" in a year with 100 dives which can't be good either, they may have passed the exams but do they have sufficent foundation experience?

Where would you put the line in the sand? at what point would you let someone do an IDC? Some people can cut it and others can't. Doing the training does not guarantee you a job. It just lets you apply.

There are other issues here. There is no demand for more qualified instructors on a mass scale. Which is why it's not being implemented. There are a few agencies that make it hard to be an instructor - and they are tiny in comparison to those who make it easily achievable. People should vote with their feet if they don't like it - but they don't. I think currently instructors are not killing people or doing a bad job - and I think generally the system is about right.

 

[MichaelMc]

I'm also at a loss as to why you'd need to frog kick to be a good DM. Or to backfin.

Backkick allows you to face your divers while maintaining a desired separation or closeness, without needing to push on them to prevent entanglement. Guiding involves maneuvering with one or a few divers, and responding to issues underwater that may involve fixing or adjusting their gear or responding to anxiety. If when you get close to them, you keep running into them because the only way you can move is forward, or you have to keep pushing away from them to prevent that, you have added to the problem. Frogkick is just a step before that, and a calmer way to move in the water with out kicking up the bottom.

 

[stuartv]

If you were to try to define a perfect IDC / DM facility, what would be on your shopping list?

- In south FL, as I would prefer to still live in the continental US.

- Will accept a student/candidate with any level of skill and knowledge coming in and produce a graduate that exceeds all standards, and in the most efficient manner possible. I.e. least time and money required to achieve the desired result.

- Will hire me afterwards for a 6-figure salary, and then mentor me as an employee from "exceeded all standards for DM/Instructor certification" to "totally excellent DM/Instructor that is capable of doing the things in bullet #2."

That would be MY perfect program...