Becoming a PADI IDC Staff Instructor

I’ve been a PADI scuba instructor in Toronto for the last three years. While we can only teach the open water components of scuba courses in the summer (comfortably and safely), the popularity of scuba and Toronto’s large population supports pool training all year round. With a good amount of teaching experience under my belt (weight belt?), I was ready for some more professional training. I enrolled in the PADI IDC Staff Instructor course at Utila Dive Center where I had previously done my PADI IDC training.

I wasn’t completely sure what to expect with this course. While a lot of people talk about their IDC experience, and there are countless YouTube videos showing IDC skills and presentations, not a lot of people talk about the Staff Instructor course.

Like all PADI courses, there is flexibility in the format of the Staff Instructor course, but there are standards and requirements that must be followed. Prerequisites to enrol in the course include being a teaching status PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT) and EFR instructor.

The Staff Instructor course is generally centred around an IDC (more on that in a bit).

Staff Instructor candidate pre-assessment

In order to sit in the IDC as a Staff Instructor candidate, there are a number of pre-assessments that must be successfully completed. These effectively re-test knowledge and skills developed during the IDC, including:

• Scoring 80% on the dive theory exams (similar in scope to the IDC/IE theory exams)
• Scoring 80% on the PADI standards exam (again, similar in scope to the IDC/IE)
• Performing the skills circuit with a score of at least 96 with no individual score below 3
• Scoring at least 4.0 on a knowledge development presentation (same format as IDC/IE)
• Scoring at least 4.0 on a confined water teaching presentation (same format as IDC/IE)

If you’ve been an active instructor leading up to the Staff Instructor course, there should be little work required to pass these pre-assessments. You’ll probably need to review some of the theory, and refresh yourself on the full knowledge development and confined water presentation scoring. Review some skill circuit videos to ensure you haven’t gotten lazy with the demonstration of any of these skills. At lot for the major IDC centres have their own skill circuit videos on YouTube, so if you watch these and match these techniques, you’ll ace it.

It’s worth noting that if you complete the PADI Dive Theory eLearning in the last 12 months, this counts for the theory pre-assessment and you can get out of the theory exams! (You’ll just need to do the open-book standards exam.)

Staff instructor workshops

Once these pre-assessments are complete, your Course Director will deliver a few workshops that cover the IDC course standards and curriculum, organizing the Assistant Instructor course (which you’ll be able to teach independently as Staff Instructor), and the psychology of evaluation. These are the workshops that prepare you for your responsibilities and duties as Staff Instructor. This content is relatively short, and can be comfortably be covered (along with the pre-assessments) over two days, or stretched out longer depending on course logistics.

IDC audit

The next step is to audit an entire IDC. If this isn’t possible, the alternative is to present all components of the Assistant Instructor course. PADI does indicate that auditing the IDC is the preferred option, and having gone through this route, the reason is clear. By auditing the IDC, you get to see exactly how the course is structured, and you get to see real candidates in action. Yes, you previously went through your own IDC, but this time around, with your accumulated teaching experience, and without the stress and pressure of evaluations and impending IE, you grasp things at a much deeper level this time around.

Evaluating presentations

Throughout the IDC, you practice evaluating knowledge development, confined water and open water teaching presentations, alongside the Course Director. The goal (and final performance requirement of the Staff Instructor course) is to match the Course Director’s score (within reason) on a number of the presentations. This is somewhat daunting at first, but becomes much easier (and fun!) with practice.

As Staff Instructor candidate, you also get to be a unique support to the IDC candidates. You’ll be a trusted resource for them as somebody who has gone through the same process recently. They’ll welcome your advice and reassurance. You’re like the divemaster of the IDC.

When the IDC ends, so does your Staff Instructor course. If logistics permit, you’ll join your Course Director and IDC candidates at the IE orientation and closing sessions. Otherwise, you’re off limits to the IDC candidates for the duration of the IE. So while you won’t have the stress of the IE, you will find yourself sitting at home anxiously awaiting news from the candidates as they complete the IE. In some ways, the waiting and lack of control almost feels worse.

Once you get news that everybody passed the IE, you can to join the new instructors in celebrating. Then you get to return to teaching with a new appreciation for the entire PADI system, from the minutia of the Open Water standards to the IDC process.