What is the IDC?
The PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) is the PADI training to make the transition from Divemaster to Instructor. During this course you will learn and practice the skills to become a great diving instructor. The course involves in-depth presentations by the PADI Course Directors and IDC Staff Instructors, and candidate teaching presentations both in the classroom and in-water. There are exams which test your theory learned on the PADI Divemaster course and the PADI standards and procedures to prepare you for the Instructor Examination and life as an Instructor.
Indepth Dive College schedules 12 IDC’s every year using our state-of-the-art training facilities. A recent visit from PADI management commended Dive Communities facilities, declaring them to be ideal training facilities. Confined water work is done in a custom 3m deep scuba training swimming pool. Open water training can either take place off nearby Kata Beach, or depending on the time of year, at Racha Yai island dive sites.
Done in the tropical waters of Phuket, this is a wonderful place to fulfil your dream of becoming a PADI Instructor. The local environment being in Thailand, one of the diving industry’s major training centers offers you the chance to be exposed to many aspects of the diving industry including underwater photography, videography, specialty instructor training, marine resources management and eco-diving. Phuket is also a great place to start your instructional career with the local waters providing such awesome diving, which can only be matched by the many activities present on land. You can either be a land-based instructor or there is also the opportunity in Phuket to work on the liveaboard vessels that run multiple overnight trips to the Similan islands, and even into Burma.
The idea behind the instructor training here is development. We are not expecting you to be perfect from day one. Mistakes made during presentations help you remember where things can go wrong and learn from and adapt to situations accordingly. So feel free to make mistakes and be corrected. You will always learn from them and by the time you get to the IE, you will be fully prepared.
Course Structure
The 10-day PADI IDC is broken down into 2 course sections: The PADI Assistant Instructor course and the PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor course. The PADI Course Directors and IDC Staff Instructors give presentations on the PADI system from its history and standards, to training programs, member support and risk management. The presentations focus on the development of an instructor with emphasis on learning the standards and composition of the PADI educational model. The idea is to teach you how to use the PADI Standards and PADI tools to maximum effectiveness as an instructor and how to prepare effective teaching presentations.
Dive Theory Exams
The dive theory exams that are given as part of the course are very similar to the ones you have already completed on the PADI Divemaster training. They focus on five subjects; Physics, Physiology, Dive Skills & The Environment, Equipment, and Decompression Theory and the Recreational Dive Planner. This prepares you for the dive theory exams that you take on the PADI Instructor Exam (IE)
PADI Standards Exams
It is extremely important as an Instructor that you understand the PADI Standards and are familiar with navigating the PADI Instructor Manual and IDC Guide to Teaching. The General Standards and Procedures exam is an assessment of your understanding of PADI Standards and preparation for the similar exam that you will sit at the PADI IE.
Divemaster Skill circuit
The Divemaster skill circuit is a repetition of the 20-skill circuit from the PADI Divemaster course. This is done in confined water early on the course to establish that your skills are of demonstration quality.
Knowledge Development Teaching Presentations
An important part of being an instructor is the ability to transfer your knowledge to your students. There is no point in knowing everything but not being able to pass on this information. The classroom presentations you give on various assignments from the PADI curriculum are made to the PADI Course Director or the IDC Staff. The staff will give you positive feedback and suggestions for improvement. Remember that on the course you will have a number of attempts at these presentations so feel free to make mistakes. We are here to prepare you for an IE so it is better to get these mistakes out of the way early and learn from them.
Confined Water Teaching Presentations
The primary function of a diving instructor is to teach people how to dive. Accordingly a large IDC course segment consists of learning how to teach in confined water, where students will first be introduced to skills. You will give teaching presentations to the PADI Course Director and IDC Staff on skills from the PADI Open Water Course, PADI Adventures in Diving Course and PADI Rescue Diver Course in the pool. Again you are given a number of attempts to hone your teaching skills and prepare you for the IE so relax and remember that you are here to learn.
Open Water Teaching Presentations
Open Water teaching presentations make up the final grading criteria of the IDC and the IE. After all this is where you will need to be at the top of your game, when you take students out into the untamed open water environment. After initial staff demonstrations and tips on teaching, you will give presentations to the PADI CD and IDC Staff on skills from the PADI Open Water course, PADI Adventures in Diving and the PADI Rescue Diver course.
You will also learn how to teach multiple skills from different courses in the same presentation, thus become more functional as an instructor.