Instructor Internship

INSTRUCTOR INTERNSHIPS

Overview

Through their background or education some volunteers can contribute in a spectacular fashion. Volunteers with special skills, whether they be marine biologists or scuba instructors are always in high demand and are most welcome to intern with us. This page details options for PADI scuba instructors to intern with us and build experience and teach diving to fellow volunteers.

If you are not yet an instructor, but want to become one with Marine Conservation Philippines through the PADI Instructor Development Course, you can find a lot more information on this page:

Tell me about doing the instructor course

In an instructor internship, you’re welcome to work with us no matter if you’re a grizzled veteran who’s been teaching diving for years, just wanting to contribute to worthwhile conservation cause; Or if you’re a green instructor right out of your Instructor Development Course looking to build experience through team-teaching with more experienced instructors. The length of your stay should however be at least 10 weeks. You’ll of course get the certification credit for students you teach, even if you teach through team teaching.

If you’re a Certified Instructor

Role Model Divers

We expect our instructors to be role models as divers. If you do not have proper buoyancy control or trim, or if you kick up the bottom when you dive, then let’s please work on fixing that before you teach any volunteers. If you feel your own advanced dive skills need some work, please realise this is not unusual considering the relative ease and number of dives required to becoming a PADI instructor. We are happy to help you improve!

Equipment

Some volunteers arrive with their own scuba gear, but if they don’t they’ll dive in a DIR-style backplate/wing setup (do google it, if you’re unfamiliar with it. Here’s a video that shows the assembly of the setup). We’ve chosen this setup because we feel it’s superior to normal recreational BCDs, and as our volunteers stay for a minimum of six weeks it’s no problem having to adjust the webbing to get it right for the first dive or two. If you are not familiar with this sort of set-up, it’s no problem. You can continue diving with your old BCD or switch to one of our wings – it’s entirely up to you. Despite the wing being DIR style, volunteers dive with normal regulators, not with a hogarthian long hose setup. We also use dive computers.

Teaching Standards

We take our time to teach to a very high standard. If you’ve already been working as an instructor, you probably sometimes feel pressurized to certify divers who are only just meeting standards, who perhaps aren’t truly competent, or probably not – in reality – prepared to dive independently after the Open Water Course, even if they “passed the course”. In a commercial dive shop it can be difficult to take students on extra dives (for free) – but as we’re anything but a busy dive-shop and because divers with poor buoyancy and skills can’t perform the scientific work we need to do underwater, we have to teach scuba courses the best way. This is a luxury to embrace! Imagine as an instructor having no time constraints, and be able to teach the best divers ever! We promise the divers you would teach here, you’ll be proud to say you taught and certified.

Courses Taught

Most of our volunteers are already scuba divers when they arrive. We do not teach that many Open Water Courses – Many, more than half probably, take advantage of our unique offer of free scuba training, and as such they may do the EFR, advanced course or maybe the rescue course. These three courses probably comprise about half of all our courses, with the rest being divemaster courses, specialties, technical diving and the occasional Open Water Course.

You’re Not Yet a Certified Instructor

Once you’ve completed your Divemaster course, the next step on the professional scuba-learning ladder is becoming a PADI instructor. If you feel like its too big a step, PADI also offers an intermediate assistant instructor certification, which will give you an opportunity to get added experience teaching students in a limited number of specialty areas, but this is not a prerequisite for instructor training.

Marine Conservation Philippines is a working scientific marine conservation organisation, not an instructor development centre, but we have some very experienced instructors who help help teach the instructor course. Practically the way we do it is through partnering with a nearby dive centre, to be able to use their superior pool with adjacent aircon classroom, and the teachers on your instructor course come from both Marine Conservation Philippines as well as the divecenter. Visit this webpage to read much more about the PADI instructor course and the partnership. The IDC is a fairly short course (around fifteen days) and you’ll typically rejoin us after the completion of the course.

Becoming an Instructor
Let us be clear. The PADI instructor course will not teach you how to dive! You should already have excellent water skills and diving knowledge from your divemaster training. The Instructor Development Course (IDC) is all about learning how to teach those skills and academics to new divers or divers continuing their dive education. It consists of mock training scenarios in the classroom, pool training and in open water where you will practice teaching techniques, and learn about the business of diving and instructional methodology
The course has two components, the Assistant Instructor Course (AI) and the Open Water Scuba Diver Instructor Course (OWSI). Together the two courses combine to encompass the entire IDC. Both courses must be completed before attending the PADI Instructor Examination (IE).

PREREQUISITES

A PADI Divemaster who has been a certified diver for six months may enroll in the PADI Instructor Development Course.
At least 60 logged dives to start the IDC and 100 dives to attend an IE.
Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care (CPR and First Aid) training within the past 24 months.
A medical statement signed by a physician within the last 12 months.

JUST WANT TO DO YOUR IDC?

If you are solely interested in doing your IDC, not in getting additional skills through an internship with Marine Conservation Philippines either before or after the IDC (or both before and after,) we can still help you. And you in turn can make the money you pay work for marine conservation! In this case, we will sort your accommodation outside of MCP, to make things easier and more streamlined for you.

Tell me about doing the instructor course

Practically a PADI instructor internship with Marine Conservation Philippines can be organised in many different ways. Some do the required divemaster course with us before starting, while others are already divemasters prior to joining us. Some are interested in technical diver training and in any case the length and the components of the internship is always individual and tailored to you wishes (and our needs!)

Advanced and Rescue certification
To do preceding courses, and build dive experience typically 2-4 weeks.
Divemaster course
If you're already rescue certified, 8-12 weeks is typical length
Instructor course (IDC)
You will prep for a week, and then do your IDC. 3 Weeks
Instructor internship
Length to be discussed, but typically 6-12 weeks.
Optional: Tec diver training
Length to be discussed, but typically 6-12 weeks.

Above is an example of how a long term internship could be structured. There are however too many ways to do it, to depict every option so please contact us to discuss possibilities.