“Do any of you actually dive or teach?”
Have you ever visited your training agency‘s headquarters? If you can, you should. The experience can be eye-opening.
So long as you don’t show up unannounced, the folks at your diver training organization should be happy to show you around and introduce you to key staff members. After all, consider how much you pay yearly in membership and certification fees along with training material purchases.
Depending on the agency, the headquarters may be staffed by just a handful of people, or it may employ more than 100. Whatever the number is, there are questions you need to ask. These include:
- How many of your staff are certified dives?
- How many are instructors?
- How actively do staff members dive?
- How often do those who are instructors teach?
Remember, these are the people who decide what, when, where and how you can teach. They are the people you rely on to answer questions about standards and procedures. They must know what they are talking about and have recent experience to draw on when doing so.
Depending on the agency, you may be surprised at how little real-world experience some of their staff members have. Or, if they do have considerable prior experience, they may no longer actively dive or teach. These are all signs you may be affiliating with the wrong organization.
An agency with a difference
International Training (ITI) is the parent company for SDI, TDI, ERDI and PFI. Its international headquarters is in Stuart, Florida, where you can basically fall out of bed and into the water. This is important as the closer an agency is to the water, the more actively the staff can dive and teach.
ITI employs over two dozen people at its headquarters. This is backed up by regional offices around the globe. Nearly everyone at ITI Headquarters is a certified diver. The few who are not are usually newly hired employees working in materials distribution. These staff members will typically take advantage of the opportunity to learn to dive for free at their first opportunity.
More than half of the ITI Headquarters staff are instructors. Nearly all of them teach at least one formal scuba class every year, usually more than this. Also, if answering questions over the phone or writing training materials or blog posts, they are, in essence, “teaching” full time.
Does all this real-world experience make a difference? Just ask our members.
And, while you are at it, ask yourself this: Would you rather be told what to do by someone who no longer dives or teaches actively? Or would you prefer to have a productive conversation with someone whose real-world experience matches your own? Do we need to ask?
If you’d like to experience the difference yourself, contact us.