After you write to a dive centre yourself you dont expect to be answering a simlar email to the one you wrote yourself but this is what happend to myself when I got this email:
[Scuba Diver] I am an English male with a dream of becoming a professional diver, by becoming a dive instructor and educator. Growing up not much money or opportunity my world was small and I spent most of my youth working to pay for school and taking care of myself as much as I could. Just before he passed away he told me to make him proud and follow my dreams and see the world. Since that day I have been working on doing just that.
I currently work as a Lab Technition which I have been working for the company for 10 years. I have recently been promoted to a department managers position. I am well educated and I will always have work in my field. I can make a good living in my position but I am unhappy and feel that I don’t belong.My job requires me to work in big cities like London and Glasgow which in turn requires me to live in metropolitan areas. I don’t belong in the city surrounded by concrete jungles, noisy traffic, polluted water and angry people.
I work 5 days a week and only get to enjoy 2 days. The 2 days that I’m not working I usually spend diving and exploring. I don’t like this ratio and combined with the climate; There just isn’t enough diving in my life. Life is too short to wast it on being just being OK. Money isn’t going to make me happy, I need adventure and I want to learn to dive professionally.
What I do like about my job is working with people to solve problems, training and exploring what makes things come to life. I have a compulsion to know and understand how everything works. Its been a trade mark of mine since I was a child. I don’t know how to do the bare minimum, I am an all or nothing kind of person in work and at play. I am looking to make a fulltime career change. In a hot climate is where I would like to begin this journey, the climate is very appealing to me. I want to be able to dive year round and get the experience of a life time!
I’ve been diving in water that is just above freezing for the last few months. Most of my friends and fellow divers think I’m crazy but I love being in the water so much that its worth baring the elements. I have been diving for the past few years. I got my open water through SDI and my Advance through PADI here in Scotland. I’ve done my wreak, search and rescue, navagation, deep diving and peak preformance courses. Most of my experience has been fresh water lakes and quarries. But I have been diving in Egypt as well as Catalina and Sonoma islands in the dominican republic.
I’m looking for some kind of internship to allow myself the oppuritunity to learn everything I can about diving and gain as much experience as possible. The only way I believe I can do this is to work in the industry and surround myself with like minded people. I am not a rich man and would need a way to support my passion for further education. As well as a way to be able to stay in the area where I can gain the knowledge and experience needed to progress. Which is why I ask for your help. I have the will to succeed and with or with out your assistance I will prevail. But after reading about your centre and reading everything that you had to say I know that your company is where I need to be to turn my dreams into reality. I realize that I have lots to learn and it will take time and hard work. But I need your help to make me the best dive Instructor and educator that I can be. I would like to begin my journey sometime in the coming year and would like your help to finalise details and maybe sugest to me if you can’t help me another avenue I could persue.
Thanks again for getting back to me and providing me with all of the information.if there is any other information I can provide don’t hesitate to ask. I am not shy and I tried to keep my story as short as posible so I don’t bore you lol. I look forward to hearing from you.
[Dive Instructor] What a great story, I will be glad to help you and hope to meet you one day so thank you for your enquiry. I have included the equipment in the internship package for you, we will not give you your own equipment on day one though preferring to allow you time to make an informed decision about the equipment. Many people upgrade some parts of the package to suit them and their diving needs. The package also includes accommodation for the duration of your stay. If you do not require any parts of the internship let me know and I will adjust the package accordingly.
The internship would include these courses:
PADI EFR – Emergency First Responder
PADI CFC – Care For Children
PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider Course
PADI Rescue Diver
PADI MSD – Master Scuba Diver
PADI Divemaster Course
PADI IDC Preparation Course
PADI IDC – Instructor Development Course
PADI EFR/CFC and O2 Provider Instructor
Additionally we can get you (all this is optional)
Full set of professinal branded premium Scuba equipment
3 months accommodation (Basic room with fridge / bed and air con)
5 PADI Specialties for your Master Scuba Diving rating
All PADI manuals
All PADI fees paid
Unlimited dives (100+)
Liveaboard experience – 3 days/2 nights.
Job placement service
Visa assistance
The cost of this internship will be with equipment and accommodation but we can quote you on it without accommodation or without equipment or even without equipment or accommodation. Would really recommend 3 months for this so you can get the most experience from your training and the most fun and excitement. I would strongly recommend you then went onto complete the MSDT internship.
MSDT (Master Scuba Diver Trainer) Internship
The PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer rating is given to PADI Instructors that can teach at least 5 PADI Specialities and have issued 25 certifications. PADI MSDT Instructor are experienced and can teach a wide range of PADI courses, they have a lot to offer when they are looking for a job.
This package includes:
At least 25 PADI student certifications
5 Specialty Instructor of your choice
Specialty lecture given by our PADI Course Director
Master Scuba Diver Trainer process with PADI
Unlimited diving
PADI fees included and 5 PADI Specialty outlines
2 month accommodation
Possibility to extend your experience after the 2 first months
As you appreciate, we cannot guarantee you work with ourselves after training, we have never met before. However I will inform you that most of our instructors have undertaken their IDC with us (including myself) and go on to work here. The best way for us to see you in action and you to get to know us more is the internship, you will spend so much time around us you will really feel part of the team, going through our staff at the moment, James did his internship here, he is now a Staff Instructor been here 1 year and looks after our internships, another of our Instructors did her internship here, she is now is an IDC Staff Instructor looking after the day trips. I did mine here, now I am a Course Director and own the dive centre these are just some of the staff you can meet everyone else when you get here.
To work legally you will also need a work permit. They are fairly easy to get but depending on the lawyer you choose it could be a hassle. All
you need to do is set up your own limited company and then apply for your work permit. Easy, but expensive. it takes around six weeks, and will require two trips out of the country to obtain the required visas. So you can see already, if you only plan to come here for a few months it’s a lot of hassle and expense. If you plan on being here longer then it becomes worthwhile. It should be noted that if or when you decide to leave, it’s a straightforward process to sell the company and make some money back. There are always new divers arriving who will buy these companies, as it saves them a lot of the headache involved with starting from scratch. Once you have your own company and Work
Permit, you are able to freelance. The company with the work will employ your company to carry out the Diving.
There are plenty of local divers that have the PADI Dive Master so generally the minimum qualification required is PADI Open Water SCUBA Instructor or equivalent certification from another training agency. There are very few exceptions to work permits being issued to Dive Masters, and these tend to be on the basis of specialist knowledge, experience, languages spoken and knowledge of the areas that are dived. At our dive centre, we do not have paid staff as with Divemaster certification only Instructors.
After you complete the internship with us you can continue to stay at the accommodation we have provided, you will need to pay the monthly
rate you agree with the owners, however most people prefer to get an apartment or house after completion of the internship.
So I can look at the Visa for you, can you tell me in which town, county and country you are living please.