Qualify As A Dive Instructor

An unrivalled opportunity to ditch the day job and work anywhere in the world! Life is good as a diving instructor, we should know we have several on our staff at Xtreme Gap Year. In fact you could say that we diving nuts, so you have our full support and expertise if you are planning the ultimate career move into becoming a diving instructor.

Our Zero to hero course qualifies you for very basic all the way through to full blown PADI pro.

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Learn & Earn As a Dive Instructor

It is a pretty good life style you have as a Dive instructor and it is very rewarding too! You help people overcome their fear and make them feel really proud. Imagine having happy students around you every day. Of course the view from the office is pretty tough, usually the worlds best beach resorts, yes it is a tough life, but someone has to do it.

How do you become a Dive instructor

If you are a complete novice in diving it will take you 7 months to train up to become a dive instructor, but is a pretty awesome 7 months. You will enjoy unlimited diving living on a tropical island paradise! Most of the time the sea is your class room! And your work uniform is swimwear, the cantina is a nice Thai restaurant and your teachers are all tanned and happy to help you out becoming one of them! You see people coming and going visiting the island for a holiday and you will be staying… What a joy living on a tropical island for 6 long hot months! Learn more about becoming a dive instructor here.

Training & Course Break Down

If you have no prior diving certifications you start of with your PADI open water certificate, this will take you about 4 days. After that you do your advanced open water which will take you 2 days. Then the more serious work starts and we will take you through the rescue course and your EFR. The Divemaster follows then the IDC.

• Open Water
• Advanced Open Water
• Emergency First Response (First Aid)
• Rescue Diver Certificate
• Divemaster
• EFR Instructor
• Open Water Scuba Instructor Development Course (The IDC)
• The Instructor Exams (fees not included)

The Divemaster

Now you are ready for your Divemaster internship. For about 2,5 months you will be training with your own instructor. He or she will help you with your study and you will be helping guiding dives and learn all about the dive industry. During this time you can dive as much as you want! The Divemaster internship is where you gain most of your commercial experience in the dive industry. At this point some opt to work as a Divemaster (if a position is vacant) and this then becomes a paid position. This is not Guaranteed, but fairly realistic when spending 6 months training. If you are a Divemaster you can guide dives, you can not teach people how to dive. Being a Divemaster is fun and you will be able to work in the dive industry anywhere in the world but if you want to take it one step further and have a properly paid job (Divemasters do not earn much) in the dive industry and really teach people how to dive you have to continue your course and do the instructor course!

Why does the course take 7 months?

Well you need experience, and you need to take time to gain this experience. Most of this comes during your Divemaster course, and then you are taught how to “teach” on your IDC. PADI sets down the rules, and their current rules state that you can not start your IDC until you have had a minimum of 6 months since completing your first open water course. Since the IDC can take a few weeks you need to allow 7 months. If you have already got your open water, we can shorten the course (and reduce the cost as well) contact us for details.

Are The Instructor Exam Fees Included?

No, unfortunately they are not. It is pretty expensive to become a Diving instructor, but ultimately worth it. The IDC (abbreviation for Instructor development course) includes the required training both practical and theory with a qualified course director, to get you up to the standards needed to pass the Instructor Examination. The Price of the programme covers the IDC (It also covers the accommodation and diving costs and course learning materials as well), but not the examination fees.

So please note you will need to budget at least £800 on top of the fee to Xtreme Gap to cover the extras

Think of it like learning to drive, you are paying for the lessons, and instruction. The instructor examination fee is just that, it is the fee paid to PADI to sit and mark the exams. They send out their own examiners to mark you and certify you ensuring you are up to standards. The fee is the same regardless of where you sit the exam as these are set down by PADI based in Australia.

Now in extreme cases someone may not pass the exam, so fees are never included because it is up to you to be able to pass, this means if you failed you would have to pay the exam fee again.

We say extreme cases because our Course Director Guy Corsellis, has a 100% pass rate and is one of the longest serving course directors in Thailand. He has certified well over 1000 instructors in his career.

This means it is a big investment to train as a dive instructor, with the cost of this programme and living costs involved, but it does cover you for 6 months, and because you will be living and training in Koh Tao, the worlds top location for scuba certifications, it gives you plenty of time to network and get to know the dive school owners (there are 38 there) , so it is easier to snag the instructor jobs available when they become available.

Trip Frequently Asked Questions

Price

Dates

Please contact us with your current dive qualification is and tell us when you would like to start. Depending on qualifications we will customise the start date for you. If you have never dived before you will need to allow up to 7 months. If you have an existing dive qualification then you can complete this in as little as three months.