Call us on regular phone In the USA (broadband) 305 420 5959 From the USA to Honduras 011 504 4253326 (cell phone) 011 504 33732521 In the UK (broadband) 0203 3719488 From the UK to Honduras 00 504 425 3326 (mobile phone) 00 504 33732521
You’ve decided you want to become a professional, there’s no doubt
about that,
maybe it’s your love of the ocean, interaction with aquatic
life, passion for diving, enjoyment of working with people, the
opportunities to travel, employment opportunities in the tropics,
there’s hundreds of reasons why we all choose to become dive
professionals and work in differing cultures and under water
environments. Sometimes the hardest part to becoming a PADI Divemaster or Instructor is where do I take my training????
As a PADI Course Director who’s worked and traveled in several
different dive destinations around the world I understand that as dive
professionals, and people, we differ in what we look for or what we
want from our training and dive careers. I’d like to share with
you some of the philosophies that myself, and the Utila Dive Centre,
have towards training divers at the professional level so you can help
make up your mind if you’d like to take your dive training with us.
Firstly, we never claim to be the best or the biggest, whilst many IDC
facilities do, I believe that there is always someone you can learn
from, fellow professionals and at times even your own students, empathy
and open mindedness are attributes that every Instructor should be able
to have in order to develop themselves and to relate to their
students. We prefer a more personal, realistic and individualized
approach to training Instructors, we encourage all of our candidates to
arrive on Utila before the IDC starts, time permitting, so that we get
to know you and to show you our approach to training divers, from
beginners to technical students. If you’d like to Divemaster with
us prior to the IDC to sharpen your skills up or to sit in on when our
Instructors give dive theory classes you are more than welcome to,
after all we don’t just want you to pass your Instructor Examinations
but we really want you to understand and be able to explain the topics
you’ll soon be teaching to your own Divemasters. We’ll provide
every candidate that arrives on Utila early for their IDC with a pre
IDC preparation program, this will help you enter the IDC better
prepared.
Our group sizes are never more than 6 candidates, we’re not a factory
and never want to be, sometimes (too be honest, quite frequently) as a
result of our own good reputation and ‘word of mouth’ we can get more
than 6 candidates per IDC but in this case we will have 2 Course
Directors and additional IDC Staff Instructors, if needed particularly
for language requirements, working with you to give closer more
personal attention.
Educational psychologists have proven that people learn best when they
are free from distraction and ready to learn, so not only do we make
efforts to prepare you well for the IDC but we also host our IDC in a
facility that is similar in quality and study environment to most top
Universities and Colleges. Our academic presentations are given
in a modern, spacious, tiered, well ventilated conference room with
A/C, using the latest in digital projection and PowerPoint multi media
presentations. We have a well stocked reference library for
you to use during revision and assignment preparation and either myself
or one of my colleagues will be available, even out side curriculum
hours, to help you should you have any questions. We recently saw
an additional improvement to our facility with a new training pool at
the Mango Inn conference facility, it was a pleasure to work with the
owners of Utila Dive Centre and help design a pool that would allow us
to better train our Instructor candidates for in water skill
development and to make them look more polished as dive
professionals. No longer in the Caribbean will strong East winds,
bad weather, reduced visibility or long boat trips reduce the time it
takes for us to work with you on in water skills.
As a dive Instructor your students will look up to you as a
knowledgeable professional and often seek your opinion and advice on
dive issues, for this reason we have gone beyond the standard IDC
curriculum to add more topics to our program to benefit you beyond the
IDC and IE. I’ve extended our IDC beyond the minimum standard of
7 days set by PADI to provide you with a course and curriculum that in
total is 11 days in length. This is comprised of an extended 9
days curriculum with a 2 day mock Instructor Examination, so not only
does our extended curriculum include more effective teaching
techniques, discuss instructing in different worldwide environments,
children’s dive programs, beyond recreational diving – ‘Tec-Rec’ but
we’ll also look at resort management, host a semi closed circuit
rebreather orientation and look at greater career opportunities in
diving including ‘diver safety’ and ‘technical diving’, resume
preparation and what gives you the best chance of success as a
professional in today’s dive industry. Our 2 day mock Instructor
Examination at the end of our IDC will make the IE appear a formality,
because that’s what we make it, a formality. Your real test,
which you’ll pass, will be your 1st Open Water class!
Although I’m proud of our IE pass rate I prefer not to use this as a
measure of our success, instead I like to follow our IDC candidates
after their IE, as Instructors and how well they are doing in the real
world, it’s a delight to hear that many of our candidates and IDC Staff
from previous years are now successful dive resort
managers/manageresses, Course Directors, dive center owners, employees
of PADI and successful Instructors. That’s the real measure of
successful training and shows the solid foundation that you’ll receive
during your time with us.
So when you’re considering where to take your ‘Instructor Development
Course’ I hope that this gives you an idea of the way we’ll prepare and
train you as an Instructor, not just to pass an IE but to understand
exactly how the dive industry operates and is evolving and how you can
present PADI programs in the most effective manner to divers from
differing backgrounds and cultures with knowledge beyond that of an
average Instructor.
Warmest regards,
Andy Phillips
PADI Course Director #608779
DAN Instructor Trainer #10778
IANTD Instructor Trainer #389
Beautiful Oceans Science Instructor Trainer #7209
"because my worst nightmare is to wake up one day, old and grey, thinking about all the things I didn't do..."
Call us +1-305-4205959, we'll call right back for a personal discussion
about your professional training goals, specific course prices,
requirements and other questions, or e-mail
Our group sizes are never more than 6 candidates, we’re not a factory
and never want to be, sometimes (too be honest, quite frequently) as a
result of our own good reputation and ‘word of mouth’ we can get more
than 6 candidates per IDC but in this case we will have 2 Course
Directors and additional IDC Staff Instructors, if needed particularly
for language requirements, working with you to give closer more
personal attention. 