PADI Pro Craig Williams of Divewise in St. Julian’s, Malta, is an IDC Staff instructor.
He first started diving in England and later moved to Malta, where he became a PADI Instructor in 2023. In September 2024, together with Rinke Van der Meer, Craig took over the reins of the PADI Career Development Center Divewise. In just the first year, the pair has already achieved tremendous success through a focus on training and staff empowerment.
Craig now dreams of becoming a Course Director. He believes in having strong, empowered, knowledgeable and safe diving-center staff.
Learn how Craig used the PADI EMEA Advanced Training Academy to train staff to teach a wide range of courses.
Q: What business challenge did you face?
A: Instructors who were not confident in teaching a range of courses.
As soon as I took over Divewise, I wanted to go above and beyond to ensure that all the staff felt a part of the center and were given the tools to feel confident to teach any course. When I became an instructor, I didn’t feel confident with some courses, so I asked each instructor at Divewise to create a “hit list” of courses they felt comfortable with and those they would like to have more training or assistance to teach properly. Many instructors stated the Rescue Diver and Divemaster courses as their weaker areas.
To help with team building and sharing knowledge, we implemented weekly staff meetings to discuss the wins and challenges from the week; we’d give each staff member 30 seconds to celebrate their wins or start a discussion to solve a problem together.
Q: How did PADI help you solve your business challenge?
A: PADI EMEA offers the Advanced Training Academy, which is available to all instructors – new, returning or experienced.
Following these discussions, I chose to offer the PADI EMEA Advanced Training Academy to all instructors to build confidence in teaching the Rescue Diver and Divemaster courses, specifically. The training was optional, but everyone signed up and got involved, whether they were long-standing members of staff or new for the coming season. I really wanted a collective staff that can teach any course, whenever called upon, to allow for greater flexibility and availability when allocating courses and meeting customer requests.
We closed for a day, pre-high season, for all staff to complete the “Conducting a Successful PADI Rescue Diver Course” from the EMEA Advanced Training Academy, offering a dry workshop in the morning and a wet workshop in the afternoon. This also functioned as a great team-building exercise and allowed all the instructors to gel together. We have also run the “Making the Most of the PADI Pros’ Site” and “Risk Management and Best Practice” workshops, and we will run the “Conducting a Successful Divemaster Course” presentation over a series of three hour-long sessions.
Q: How is it working now?
A: All the staff have been involved in the training.
Staff members were given the choice to participate, and everyone chose to do so because they saw the opportunity for personal development, the chance for additional training to build their confidence in lesser-taught courses and a wonderful moment for group discussions. Following the Rescue Diver training, the store has taught multiple Rescue Diver students, and different members of staff have been given the opportunity to teach these courses, including one new instructor who completed the IDC/IE just six weeks earlier. Whilst being nervous to teach their first Rescue Diver course, they felt more confident that they could deliver a high-quality course for the students and knew they had staff around them who they could ask questions to if needed.
The “Conducting a Successful Divemaster Course” presentation is planned in a few weeks, just prior to a new cohort of Divemaster candidates starting. The training for these candidates will be shared amongst the instructors and the on-site Course Director.
I believe the sessions taking an in-depth look at the PADI Pros’ Site and the presentation on “Risk Management and Best Practice” have been invaluable in reiterating how important paperwork standards are — that they should always be adhered to — and that safety should always be at the forefront of every instructor’s mind.
Q: What advice do you have for others in similar situations?
A: Invest in your staff – they run your business!
Every staff member should have the ability to teach every course, as they are a representation of your business. They should be able to demonstrate a high level of skill and knowledge across the PADI curriculum.
Closing the store for a day to deliver staff training was a long-term investment for both the instructors and the store, and it means we are not limited by which courses certain instructors can and cannot teach. In a resort environment, we need to be agile, flexible and reactive to what courses customers are looking for, so ensuring all our instructors are confident teaching all courses – including Rescue Diver and Divemaster – is vital to our business.
Are you ready to learn more about all of the benefits of PADI EMEA Advanced Training Academy? Contact your PADI Course Director or your PADI Five Star IDC store. If you have any questions, please contact the Instructor Development team at [email protected].
