Hey Guys, I'm looking to do an Internship somewhere, ideally to gain an instructor certification. Could anybody give me some advice to where the best place to go home or abroad to do this? preferably somewhere that doesnt cost in the region of £5-7,000 I know its possible as I've met someone who has done it but i just cant find out where, i also know that some places will train you up to a certain level then you must work for them to re-pay the qualification usually taking around 5-9 months in total. I would personally prefer to work abroad (Outside UK) but im open to doing it in the UK as well. Any info provided will be very much appreciated Kind Regards Aaron
All that's missing is the Career Development Loan..... I'm certain they'll be lots of people on here who can give you some useful advice - unfortunately I'm not one of em lol.
yeah, ill look into that if i really need to hopefully some very informative people can point me in the right direction, thanks for the input tho!
Have a read of this, it may prepare you for what is to come... http://ukdivers.com/community/threads/diving-internship-companies.11257/
In fairness the OP hasn't mentioned a career develpment loan, simply where to do it without spending 7k. To the OP, why don't you ask the person you've met where they did it???
What level are you at currently? How fast do you need to get it done? I am no authority on the matter but my assumption would be to see if you can take your time working/volunteering with a local school whilst carrying on your normal job. It will be cheaper overall and the experience would make you a better Instructor at the end. Don't forget UK scools also go out to the sunnys to finish some of their referral courses. You may then get work when you are finished too. I was in Sharm last year, they said work was very slow at the moment. C
im currently at OW level, ive considering going down to capernwray (lancashire) to do some diving. however id much rather do it all abroad on a working internship if possible simply because i want to get out of this country and have done for a while. i dont really have any schools close by for me which is an issue, the closest is around a 60 minute drive Thanks Aaron
Small world. Aquanauts, the company who runs divinginstructortraining.com is owned by an English guy called Roger. We used to drink together down on Soi 6/Yodders in Pattaya. Fond memories of a past life !!
i've looked at them and although they look amazing, they are also 5* and cost an absolute fortune! I dont suppose you know of anywhere that does working internships? The best i have found upto now are Easy Divery in Cyprus. roughly £3000 and that takes me from OW - DM with 2 month accomodation - 100 Logged Dives - & Equipment to keep + certificates and books etc. Take a look and let me know what you think? - http://www.ezdivers.com/ I also thought i would let you know i am a qualified computer engineer meaning i can use this to my advantage to help me access and stay in other countries if i need to Thanks Aaron
Europe generally will be more expensive than the far away places where living is more basic How many logged (and stamped up) dives have you at the moment? The instructor for my Open Water was a Russian who went to Vietnam for his training. Think he went to http://www.divevietnam.com/pricing.php. Your computer training is probably not that relevant other than to pass the immigration bar, but your language skills, if any, will be. (dive centres and financial centres where computer geeks can find employment are usually rather far apart) I guess you should aim a little higher as well, DM is pretty much the basic for employment, instructor training will open you a much wider door I think. Most of the dive centres I've used have used mostly local talent as DM cannon fodder. The foreigners are usually the senior members of the team and are almost invariably instructor grades. Beware that your earning power overseas will keep you alive, but acquiring the cash for your flight home, or on to another opportunity if the local environment turns hostile, can be very hard. Good luck and I wish you all success in your venture. Harry
Hi, Aaron! I did the majority of my PADI training on internships in the Algarve, Portugal. The diving is good, although perhaps not as warm as you might expect and you'll find many varied resorts and towns to suit your preferred kind of lifestyle in the sun. Many of the centres there do DM Internships, and there are a few 5 Star Instructor Development Centres that will take you up to OWSI, too. There are always going to be a lot of questions with regards to schedule, pay, accommodation and many other factors (I'm not aware of any 'standardised' internship over there like the one you found in Cyprus), so your best bet is to have a chat with centre directors now, before the season kicks in. I won't be seen to be 'advertising' on here 'cos that's an obvious UKD no-no, but I don't think anyone would mind if you PM'd me asking for further info if you're interested! Mods & Regulars please correct me if that's a UKD no-no, too
Posting informational material is generally appreciated, advertising spam is not. I doubt any here would object if you pointed the OP at a dive centre in the Algarve that you feel was a good contact for them, and it would be a shame to restrict that information to a personal message, after all this is the second query of this sort that has surfaced in the last month, in this context the information has value to the OP and probably to any like minded reader of the forum. What triggers the knee jerk reaction is a new user, with a gushing reference to some transparently self serving website, never to be seen again. It's the dishonesty of the whole process that really stirs up the locals. Your at 44 posts and climbing, clearly contributing to the forum, pointers from those sources are to a large measure what the forum is about. Harry
Thanks Guys! Sorry i didnt realise posting links wasnt allowed, just rather let you guys as seasoned experts see what im looking at so if it is a badly known school/dive centre atleast i can be warned etc... As for the Algarve if you could pass me some info on that it would be great! I ahve a friend who lives out in spain who dives for a living but he dives for a different purpose to recreational, sorry i dont know the correct term but i think its salvage diving. hes currently south of italy where that ship sank searching for bodies (RIP) working there. He may be able to get me work near Madrid/Barcelona in spain, so that could be a vital opportunity i may look into, he also speaks fluent spanish which may help me learn faster aswell! Please if anyone else can recommend anything to me im more than willing to look into it. I'm saving my pennies to do this so hopefully it'll be hard work paid off! Thanks Aaron
Have a look at Mirage Divers in Dahab (http://www.miragedivers.com). They advertise an internship to take you from OW to DM.
Maybe a better angle to come at it from is, where in the world would you be happy living for 2+ months and then look for centres in those places.
Thanks, Harry! And, don't worry - you'll never catch me spamming... it's one of my personal hates! I just wanted to be sure that I was on the right side of that fine line between informing and advertising - that line gets a little blurred when discussing previous employers!
