What is the quickest time in the uk that you can do your padi scuba instructor qualification?

Question

I have recently completed my padi open water diving cert and would like to carry on in the uk to get up to instructor , I would like to know how , where and what courses i need to do to gain this ticket , also how much it costs and how quickly this can be acheived , i have spoken to a few dive schools and they all tell me something different , any info would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

i tried scuba diving,it wasnt for me,but also heard its quicker and cheaper to do it abroad. so why not take your girlfriend away for a relaxing week in the sun,while you continue your course!

Answer 2

A friend of mine done it years ago, he found that it was cheaper and quicker to go overseas to do it, combine it with a holiday, the best places are Egypt or Israel, just do a search loads of places come up.

Answer 3

For starters, I see other people saying to do it in a warm water location. Don't. If you really want to be a good instructor, learning in a challenging environment, such as you have in the waters in the UK, is the best way to go. It simply produces both a better diver and a better trained Instructor. Your employment prospects world wide are a lot better if you train there.

I'm not surprised that you were told different things by different shoips. They all have their own training schedules. Some may have classes once a week, others may have them 3 nights per week. So is the amount of time you have at hand, to do the practical aspects of the courses. That's going to make a large difference in the time it'll take to get certed. The cost will vary as well. Not all shops charge the same for their courses. There is no "written in stone" fee charged by the PADI organization for any of it's courses. The dive shop will charge what the base fee is and then add what they consider their profit margin. Don't just go for the lowest price. Shop around, ask other divers their opinions of dive outfits in your area. Go in person to meet all the staff. This is both an important investment and your career. You ned to feel comfortable with the shop and it's people.

To get to where you want to be, you'll need to progress up the PADI food chain a bit. Your next step is the Advanced Open Water cert, followed by the Rescue and Dive Master. Many shops won't let you advance to DM until you've piled quite a number of dives into your log book. More sometimes than the PADI standard. Once you have your DM, most shops will allow you to start an assistant instructor role while training to become a full fledged Instructor.

It's relatively rare, but it's possible to find a shop that will fast track you from Advanced to Instructor by offering to train you at multiple certs, accademically. You'll have the knoledge, but not the experience. It's not really a good idea to do it this way, however. The best is always to practice in the "real world" what you've learned as you're learning it and not be jumping back and forth between your practical advanced level skills and your current academic ones.

One last thing. Enroll in a foreign language course. Dive professionals that speak two or more languages, trump ones that have only one. Your employment prospects double. Do research on the area you wish to be employed in and find out the local language as well as the country that tends to visit that area the most. Just English isn't enough in many areas. You're up against some stiff competition for this lifestyle job.