Beginner to PADI Scuba Diving Instructor | 7 Month Dive Internship | 295,000 baht
Scuba diving instructor internship includes:
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Koh Tao Thailand Scuba Diving Internship: Overview
PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors are the most in-demand dive professionals on the planet! And the Koh Tao IDC is easily the best way to achieve that goal. What could be more rewarding than teaching people to dive on a tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand and getting paid for it!
Whether pursuing scuba diving as a long-term career or simply as a great way to spend your gap year, training to become a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor will open up many exciting opportunities.
And you’ll be certain to have excitement and adventure along the way!
This all-inclusive 7 month scuba diving internship includes absolutely everything you need to proceed from beginner through to PADI Instructor.
[Structure of the PADI Diving Internship]
Over the course of 7 months, you’ll progress from beginner through PADI’s diver education system, completing dive training in sequence and building up scuba diving experience and skills.
As part of the dive internship you have access to unlimited diving so can expect to log hundreds of dives, becoming an expert-level diver and getting to check out the amazing coral reefs and marine life around Koh Tao Thailand.
By the end of the 7 month scuba diving internship, you’ll be a competent and confident scuba diving professional, qualified as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) which allows you teach PADI courses right up to and including Divemaster level.
What's Included in the Scuba Diving Internship?
Let’s take a detailed look at exactly what’s included:
[PADI Diving Courses]
The route through to Dive Instructor involves completing PADI courses in sequence. Between each course you can ‘fun dive’ as much as you want, enjoying non-training dives to practice and master the you’ve skills learned.
Here’s a brief description of the PADI courses we’ll be moving through during the diving internship:
PADI Open Water Diver
Get comfortable using a set of scuba gear, enjoying dives down to a max depth of 18 meters, and learning about safe diving practices. Starts with diving theory, followed by shallow water skills before moving to the ocean for progressively deeper dives, where you’ll get to check out the amazing Koh Tao dive sites.
PADI Advanced Open Water Diver
The PADI Advanced Open Water course builds on the basics learned during the Open Water course, introducing new areas of diving. You’ll dive deeper [right down to 30 meters], start to practice underwater navigation using a compass and timing device, experience night diving and more. Lots of fun!
Emergency First Responder and PADI Rescue Diver
Until this point your dive training has focused on making you a better diver. Now it’s time to start thinking about everything else. After a dry CPR/First Aid session, the Rescue Diver course deals with tackling common diver problems – anticipating and preventing problems before they occur, and dealing with them whenever necessary.
We cover rescue scenarios such as problems at the surface [tired/panicked diver], underwater problems [buoyancy, overexertion, how to execute search patterns] and overall emergency management. The course concludes with Final Scenarios, where out on the dive boat, the staff simulates lots of problems which you’ll have to respond to.
PADI Divemaster Internship
The first professional level in the PADI diver education system, PADI Divemaster is where we step up a gear. The Divemaster Internship is where you make the transition from being just another diver, to someone that people look up to, in a leadership position. The course has many requirements including developing expert level theory, organizing boat logistics and delivering briefings, waterman-ship and stamina exercises, underwater problem solving, plus assisting instructors when they’re teaching students.
You learn to demonstrate basic diving skills to perfection, and become a role-model for other divers. Plus by the end of the course you’ll be confident guiding certified divers on underwater tours, including taking out real day-to-day customers.
Read more on the PADI Divemaster course
PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) & Instructor Examination
The PADI Instructor Development Course [IDC] is awesome! This is a 17 day intensive program which raises your level to perfection, and prepares you to teach diving. The course includes theory, learning to give academic presentations, delivering confined [shallow] water sessions and finally controlling open water diver training.
The course gets you performing to exacting standards, ready for the PADI Instructor Examination. External examiners travel to Koh Tao from PADI HQ in Australia to make sure everyone meets the required standard. It’s a three-day schedule, following which, once you graduate as a PADI Instructor there’ll be a lot of celebrating!
Scuba Diving Equipment
Your internship package includes your own full set of professional scuba diving gear – everything you need to work as a dive professional, and all new, brand name equipment. Specifically you’ll get:
- Suunto dive computer
- BCD [Buoyancy Control Device]
- Regulator Set
- Shorty Wetsuit
- Diving Fins & Booties
- Mask
- Snorkel
- Underwater slate
- Divers Knife
- Safety Marker Buoy
- Pocket Mask
- Whistle
- Dry bag
- Gear Bag
PADI Materials & Certification Fees
You also get your own copy of absolutely all the PADI materials you need for your diving courses. Here’s the list:
PADI Open Water Manual, PADI Adventures in Diving Manual, Emergency First Response Manual, PADI Rescue Diver Manual, Divemaster Manual, Recreational Dive Planner – table version, e-RDP Multi-Level Electronic Dive Planner, Diving Knowledge Workbook, Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving, Divemaster Slates, PADI Instructor Manual [paper version or CD], PADI IDC Candidate workbook, Instructor Slates and Lesson Presentation Cue Cards, PADI exam booklets.
Scuba Diving Internship - Accommodation
For the duration of the diving internship on Koh Tao, we’ll sort you out with comfortable accommodation.
This will be your own room with double bed if you're on your own or twin beds if you're traveling with a friend, en-suite, western bathroom – 24 hour power, electric fan and shower. There will be other interns staying in the resort so it is nice socially, and only a very short walk from the dive shop. Everything you need [shops, ATM, beach, bars and restaurants] is in very short walking distance – just 1-2 minutes away.
What's a typical day like during the Koh Tao Scuba Diving Internship?
All PADI diving courses involve a mix of scuba diving theory, learning new skills, and mastering them in the open water environment.
We organize our scuba diving internships so that we rotate through a mix of each, so the program is enjoyable and exciting, and you progress at a steady pace.
Each day we schedule two dives in the morning [from about 07:30 till midday] then two dives in the afternoon [from 12:30 till around 5pm], with night dives also running several times per week.
Usually, we’ll stick to making two or three dives per day [else you’ll end up getting very tired and may have to shorten your bottom times due to cumulative nitrogen build up – we’ll teach you about that]. When you’re in the water we’ll be working on the other components of your courses.
In between your diving courses, you’re welcome to take a bit of a break and just enjoy some fun dives, exploring the coral reefs and pinnacles and practicing your underwater navigation skills. As part of the diving internship you have access to unlimited dives, so you’d be crazy not to take advantage!!
You can take a day off pretty much whenever you want. All that we ask is that you let us know in advance so we can organize the schedule accordingly.
What can I do after qualifying as a PADI Instructor on Koh Tao?
Once you've completed your IDC and are qualified as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor you have a massive range of options open to you.
The most obvious is to work as a dive instructor, teaching people to scuba dive. Koh Tao is a very busy diving destination, with lots of diver training going on, so there are many opportunities to work around the island – so long as you apply yourself and have the right personality you shouldn’t find it hard to get work. When our shops are busy and need help, we have a policy of employing our dive internship graduates ourselves.
Similarly, if you want to travel and work in diving elsewhere, we have contacts through South East Asia so will be able to point you in the right direction. Our Course Directors have been working in the industry for ages and have trained people who are now working in diving all over the world as shop owners, resort managers and support staff.
Another option is to build up teaching experience under the guidance of our seasoned instructors, by taking your PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer Internship. With this program, you team teach your first 25 certifications, learning teaching techniques and procedures from our highly experienced staff. During this time you’ll develop your own teaching style and get certified as a Specialty Instructor in 5 different specialties of your choice [such as Deep, Enriched Air Nitrox (EANx), equipment maintenance etc], making you a lot more employable.
If you don’t want to go straight into teaching there are a number of other alternatives. You could check out one of the specialized branches of diving such as professional HD underwater videographer and photography or technical diving, or you could get involved in one of our volunteer marine conservation programs.
Or, if you want to see the rest of incredible South East Asia, Koh Tao is a great starting point – Malaysia and Singapore to the south, Laos, Cambodia and Burma to the north, or even jump on a short low-cost flight down to Indonesia.