Assistant Instructor

In short: The PADI Assistant Instructor course is the first half of the PADI Instructor Development Course. Complete it and you hold the PADI Assistant Instructor rating, which lets you start teaching a defined set of courses and leads straight on to the Open Water Scuba Instructor program.

Divemaster taught you to supervise divers. This starts teaching you to teach them.

There's a real gap between guiding a group of certified divers and standing in front of someone who has never breathed underwater and being responsible for how well they learn to. Assistant Instructor is where you cross it.

The course shifts your focus from supervision to instruction: how people actually learn, how to present knowledge development so it lands, how to demonstrate a skill slowly and correctly enough to be copied, and how to spot the difference between a student who has understood something and one who has merely completed it.

It's also the first rating that lets you teach and certify divers in your own right, in a defined set of courses. Equipment isn't included in the course fee; scuba gear can be hired separately if you don't have your own.

Who It's For

Divemasters who want to teach. If you already lead certified divers and find yourself explaining skills to newer divers, this is the course that turns that into a recognised teaching rating.

What You Need Before You Start

• A PADI Divemaster rating, or a leadership level with another diver training organisation.
• Age 18 or older.
• At least 60 logged dives to enrol in your instructor course, with documented experience in night diving, deep diving and underwater navigation, and 100 logged dives to attend the Instructor Examination.
• A diving medical statement signed by a physician within the past 12 months.
• Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care (CPR and first aid) completed within the past 24 months.
• A current PADI Instructor Manual and the IDC Crew-Pak, which includes the Guide to Teaching.

Equipment you bring: mask, snorkel and fins; exposure protection suited to the water; a cylinder and weight system; a regulator with an alternate air source and an SPG; a depth gauge; a timing device; a compass; a knife or diver's tool; and two emergency signalling devices. Hire of hard gear is not included in the course fee; scuba gear can be hired separately if you don't own it.

What You Can Teach as an Assistant Instructor

• Present the knowledge development elaboration for any PADI diver course, under an instructor's indirect supervision. The instructor assesses what the student knows.
• Present initial skills training during confined water dives, under direct supervision.
• Carry out open water surface skill evaluations during Open Water Diver dives, under indirect supervision.
• Teach and certify Peak Performance Buoyancy divers under an instructor's direction.
• Independently teach the AWARE non-diving specialties, including Coral Reef Conservation.
• Independently run Discover Scuba Diving in a pool or confined water for people not doing the optional open water dive, plus Bubblemaker and Seal Team Aqua Missions.

How the IDC and Instructor Examination Work

The Instructor Development Course has two parts: the Assistant Instructor course and the Open Water Scuba Instructor program. They can be taken together or separately. You learn through independent study first, then live presentations and workshops in a development setting. The Instructor Examination comes later, after the OWSI program. It is run by PADI Examiners, not by us.

What An Assistant Instructor Can Do

You'll be authorised to present knowledge development for any PADI diver course under an instructor's indirect supervision, deliver initial skills training in confined water under direct supervision, and conduct open water surface skill evaluations during Open Water Diver course dives.

You can also teach and certify Peak Performance Buoyancy and AWARE Dive Against Debris divers under an instructor's direction, and independently teach the non-diving PADI AWARE specialty. Assistant Instructor is a prerequisite for the OWSI programme, so it's also the first half of the route to full Instructor.

This course is priced on application, because it's often run as part of a full Instructor Development Course and the right package depends on where you're heading. Get in touch with our team and we'll put a proper quote together.