Training Leadership Around the World

By Jean-Marc Claes

Training Leadership, Divemasters or Assistant Instructors? Is that something you offer in your dive centre?

 

Do you offer it as a course or an internship?

 

During the last many years of owning my land-based dive centers in Europe, we offered these courses in the two versions mentioned above!

 

The course version mainly was a one-on-one schedule, making the best of multiple days or multiple weekends to get all the standards trained and the policies educated. These leadership courses took some serious planning, both for the dive centre and the candidates, planning in time management and planning to get everything organized besides all the day-to-day operations and family.

 

The internship version is for a more extended time, taking multiple weeks up to months. Looking internationally, I see that most dive centers offer this during a three-month time frame, staying at the dive centre, helping out, learning and, of course, “carrying tanks”?

We all joke about it, but what is the reality?

 

What is real leadership training, and who benefits the most from the above formula s O r is it like we always used to write: the quality depends on the instructor teaching the courses? How do you get the most value for your money or time invested?

 

It is a clear cut deal, taking the one on one leadership course, but what is the financial part? Teaching/organizing a leadership course takes a lot of time and energy and seldom will candidates be ready to pay for the costs that it will take you to get it all done!

 

No matter what organization you look at, teaching the Dive m aster course takes up about four to five times more of your time than teaching the Open Water course. Most dive centers will have multiple students in the Open Water class but most will never be able to find multiple Dive master candidates simultaneously. What is the actual cost they can charge for the DM candidate? Is it logical that the costs would be: Open Water class (x4 students) x 4 this equals the revenue of about 16 Open Water students This goes up in the 1000s of Euro/Dollars. So, what do you really charge?

 

After researching over 30 different websites and looking at the pricing for the offered courses, I came across many prices for Open Water courses, BUT guess what? Only two websites mentioned a price for the Divemaster course: 995 USD and 950 USD. Most websites mentioned that the price was available up on request.

 

The Divemaster course is written down with clear standards and policies by all dive training organizations, so why are we making it so unclear to possible candidates? Why are we afraid to put the price up? And is the price of 950 USD an accurate indication of the costs of a DM course?

 

Looking at the background of most Divemaster courses, most dive centers offer the Divemaster course to renew their staff and to make sure that fresh leadership blood keeps on circulating as most professional leadership careers are limited in time. This is because most dive leaders are offered such a limited salary because hey, diving is a lifestyle, so why pay a decent income The result is that most leaders get tired, need help to keep up the lifestyle, cannot save money and need to stop within the dive industry to find a decent paying job!

 

How many times have I heard: well teaching diving doesn’t make you any money, but it is fun for some time? If we offered new leadership a chance to have a decent career, they would stay longer within the dive industry, and the quality would definitely be of benefit!

 

So, during the last months, I did my research and contacted about 2500 professionals or, to be honest, mostly ex professionals I asked them about their background, how they started diving, when they became a Pro, how long that lasted, and how they had a career built for themselves. The results were not a surprise to me Actually, they confirmed my ideas (as I am travelling on a daily base internationally, meeting hundreds of active dive professionals in a year). Most dive leaders were active for one year or less most stopped because of money issues, being tired, and not feeling they were accomplishing anything after becoming an instructor.

 

Interestingly enough was the fact that most of them remembered the Divemaster course very well as being fun, exciting, and fulfilling.

 

And what about the Instructor course? Well, most were looking at it as the summit…the level they wanted to reach. However, it mostly turned out to be the level that ended their career.

 

While being recreational divers, they wanted to become a Divemaster, and what a ton of fun they had reaching that level! Being a Dive Master, the next level, becoming an instructor was mostly a choice of money and earnings as the salary or job opportunities should be better. It didn’t last!

 

So, is the role of the Divemaster under rewarded? Are we not paying the instructors enough salaries? Are the instructors not having enough fun? Is the Instructor course too boring?

 

All these questions and many more will pass again during the upcoming article s in ScubaBiz.Help We want to help you all become more successful; we want to help you reach a better balance within the dive industry and the careers of the people involved. For sure, we want to help reach higher levels of quality and more professionalism for all involved!

 

Meet us at the upcoming DEMA show set a meeting with us (free of charge), as our goal is to help you become a more successful business!