PADI IDC: Choosing A Scuba Diving Instructor Specialty
After qualifying as a PADI accredited scuba diving instructor by taking the Instructor Development Course, it is possible to continue developing your skills by choosing to specialize in one or more of the forty different fields on specialty in which PADI offers training courses. Taking part in one of these courses can have a significant impact on the quality of your teaching by providing you with far more specialized knowledge than you can get through the basic instructor training you are required to take before you can teach other people how to dive.
Choosing to take a specialty course can be the perfect way to advance professionally, make yourself more attractive to potential new employers, and to enrich your own experience of the underwater environment and diving.
One of the most popular specialist courses is the Enriched Air Instructor course. After taking this course, you will be able to teach learner divers how to use enriched air nitrox blends which contain 22 to 40 percent oxygen on no compression dives.
Another course that may be useful professionally is the Dry Suit Diver Instructor course. During this course, you will learn about the safe use and maintenance of a dry suit. This will be particularly beneficial if you intend to work in an environment in which dry suits are often used.
PADI also offers some specialty courses that involve keeping divers safe. You could, for example, take the Emergency Oxygen Provider Instructor course in order to improve the care you can give in an emergency. Once you have taken this training course, you will be able to teach other people how to provide this treatment for decompression sickness and near drowning.
There are also a number of PADI specialist instructor courses that can teach you about diving in special conditions and environments. You can take a course to become a night driving instructor or a wreck diver instructor, for example, which can open up new opportunities for your career and help you to learn about diving in new ways, which could also be advantageous for your personal diving life.
You can also take specialty instruction to learn more about the marine environment and wildlife, for example, by taking the Coral Reef Conservation Instructor specialty. You could also choose to learn how to teach new skills to divers, perhaps through the Digital Underwater Photographer Specialty course.
Taking a PADI instructor specialist course will allow you to focus your teaching work on the areas of scuba diving in which you are interested and which will be most important for the progression of your chosen career.
