At the end of the Instructor Development Course, there is an exam: the dreaded PADI Instructor Exam! It’s human nature to focus on passing this exam, but it’s not the real test at all! The real test is the first class you’ll teach a PADI Instructor.
That is why it is so important to choose the right IDC. You want to learn from a course director who teaches you how to be a good instructor, NOT how to pass IE. Course directors who focus on getting the perfect score on the IE often do so as the cost of preparing you for the real-life problems that the IDC should be preparing you for. The experience that the course director has will play an important role in this. When I started teaching the Instructor Development course as a new course director (ten years ago), I fell into this trap myself. I was more concerned with my candidates passing the IE than with taking the time to focus on more actual training.
As time passed and my confidence grew, I began to focus on the issues I knew my instructor candidates would face in their day-to-day work after passing the IE. My newfound confidence allowed me to do this because I now knew that passing IE would be a natural result of this approach. I had taught a few IDCs and no one had failed. My fear that one of my candidates would fail lessened. My focus on the Instructor Exam during my training narrowed. Therefore, my training approach was altered. I wanted to get my instructor candidates up and running. Teaching safe, fun and well organized PADI courses. It’s one thing to pass IE, but once you get your first job, if you mess up the first few courses you take, you’re going to lose that job. I realized it was my job to make sure that didn’t happen. The moral of the story – Find a course director with years of experience. They will train you to be a successful scuba instructor, not just to pass the exam.
Train in conditions similar to those you plan to work in. The IDC is certainly not easy, the cold water and poor visibility make it much more difficult. So choosing to take the IDC under such conditions certainly adds a number of homework loads. However, if you are going to teach in those conditions after passing the IE, it may be worthwhile to train in those same conditions. However, there is another option. You may decide to take the IDC in nice warm tropical waters and earn the OWSI rating under your belt, and then take the MSDT training in harsher conditions similar to those in which you plan to teach.
In PART 2, I’ll take a closer look at things you can do once you’ve passed the exam for gainful employment.