Guestblog by Sonia Rodriguez, PADI Europe

DIVEMASTER : A course, which can be run over two or more weeks according to the candidate and his choices. Advanced theoretical knowledge and high-quality techniques make attaining the credential of Divemaster possible.
Knowing that this course is the basic step to a professional career in diving, PADI integrated into this course the marketing concepts of diving, including customer service, sales and the development towards a real career in diving.
The Divemaster is therefore not only perfectly prepared to be a dive leader, but is also able to assist the instructor by supervising certain activities during training dives and to perform programs for divers who have been inactive for too long.
There are also complementary modules, which allow the PADI DM to conduct Discover Scuba dives, to become an Emergency First Response Instructor (CPR and first-aid programs for adults and children), as well as to become a Specialty Instructor for Digital Underwater Photography.
These various possibilities make a Divemaster much more than a dive guide and allow direct contact with teaching. This is also the best way for a Divemaster to discover his pleasure to pass his passion on to other people and therefore more than half of the active Divemasters sooner or later decide to go on to an IDC in order to become instructors.

Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI)
Based on the techniques and knowledge learnt during the Divemaster course, the PADI instructor course (IDC) focuses on the practical aspects, without requiring a particularly profound technical knowledge from the candidate.
With instructive competence and modern teaching methods as its basic tenets, the IDC also examines the professional characteristics of the job with its market-related concepts in detail: counseling, marketing and sales, these are strictly related to the welcoming service and the services in professional centers.
This certainly does not exclude practical and theoretical tests; the required level is not higher than before, but this time the tests require the demonstration of teaching skills. Generally the IDC takes place over one week or ten days, but it can also be structured as a series of weekends or of weekly meetings over a time span of some months.
In all cases the training ends with a two-day examination: The IE is directly performed by a PADI representative. PADI also offers the possibility to follow only the first part of the course in order to reach the level of Assistant Instructor (AI), which allows a certain teaching autonomy and a subsequent completion of the second part of the program.
After reaching the level of OWSI, the PADI Instructor meets all teaching requirements for all programs, from Discover Scuba Diving to Divemaster.