Do your professional-level training programs stand out from the crowd? Take a moment right now and visit your Divemaster or Instructor Development Course (IDC) web page. What information do you see?
- Course description? Check.
- Course prerequisites? Check.
- Course requirements? Check.
- Course cost? Check.
- Career development approach? Ch…errr, what?
While course details are helpful, when this is the only information and training offered it’s easy for your divemaster or IDC program to look like all the others. This sets your courses up for comparison shopping, and candidates may never realize the value of your professional development program or why the price you are asking is well worth it.
To set your professional development courses apart, you must go beyond the Divemaster course or IDC and offer an effective career development program. Doing so will not only help set candidates up for successful careers in the dive industry, but also help give your business a healthy boost. Following are some tips on how you can do this:
Offer Post-Graduate Courses
Whether you’re training divemasters or instructors, there are complementary professional-level courses you should offer to your graduates that will help them with their diving careers.
For PADI® Divemaster graduates, if you have instructor-level trainers on staff, add-on Emergency First Response® (EFR®) Instructor, PADI Mermaid™ Instructor, or PADI Freediver™ Instructor. Course Directors can also add-on Specialty Instructor training to teach Equipment Specialist, Coral Reef Conservation, AWARE Specialist, Emergency Oxygen Provider, Digital Underwater Photography, and any distinctive specialties that don’t require dives. Doing so gives your new divemasters skills and opportunities far beyond assisting and guiding.
For PADI Instructor graduates, the opportunities are almost limitless. They can teach any course up to Divemaster, earn Specialty Instructor ratings for 25+ standardized PADI Specialty courses, and venture into the technical diving realm by earning PADI TecRec® Instructor ratings.
How do you decide which courses to include in your career development program? The most successful programs base this on each candidate’s career desires and work destination. Before starting training, interview each of your candidates to determine what will be most beneficial to help secure a future dream job.
Provide Real-World Dive Industry Experience
Additional skills beyond course training further help your candidates prepare for a career in diving. For example, new divemasters or instructors planning on working in resort destinations will benefit from additional training in boat-handling skills (including how to tie that darn bowline knot!). Graduates planning to work in full-service dive centers will benefit from sales and point-of-sale software training. And all graduates will benefit from rental equipment maintenance and compressor maintenance skills.
Again, during your interview process with your candidates, determine their career aspirations and tailor their professional development to their goals.
Bundling Professional-Level Training
By now, you’re probably very familiar with the concept of course bundling. However, to set your professional development program apart from the rest, this tactic is not only valuable but also critical to success. Don’t make the mistake of selling each of your pro-level courses individually – doing so sets your program up for price comparison shopping. Instead, think “career development” with training packages customized to each of your candidates’ career goals.
For example, an instructor candidate desiring to work in a destination-based dive resort could benefit from the following course bundle: IDC + EFR Instructor + Master Scuba Diver Trainer prep with some of these PADI Specialty Instructor ratings: Enriched Air Diver, Deep Diver, Night Diver, Boat Diver, Digital Underwater Photographer, or Fish Identification.
Whereas an instructor candidate desiring to work in an urban-based, full-service dive shop could benefit from this course bundle: IDC + EFR Instructor + Master Scuba Diver Trainer prep with some of these PADI Specialty Instructor ratings: Night Diver, Deep Diver, Equipment Specialist, Dry Suit Diver, Full Face Mask, and Search and Recovery.
An effective career development program tailors the PADI specialties based on the candidates’ ultimate work location. Combining this custom approach with a course bundling strategy increases the value of your program, setting it apart and making it nearly impossible to price shop.
Resume Assistance
Are you seeking to hire training staff right now? If so, you’re not alone – the demand for PADI Professionals is at an all-time high. If you’re hiring, you’ve probably received more than your fair share of résumés. It’s also a fair bet that more than one of those submissions went directly from your email inbox into the trash.
An essential part of any career development program is assistance with résumé preparation. Expanding that assistance to creating a winning online professional profile is also essential in today’s online world. These two are not the same – the online personal profile is more like a highlights reel designed to showcase a candidate’s personality, preferred work environment, and strengths. A résumé dives deeper into the candidate’s work experience and history. Check out this post for tips on creating an online professional profile.
Helping your graduates create professional online profiles and a résumé is yet another service you can offer to increase your program’s value proposition.
Ready to Get Started? We’re Here to Help
If you have questions about how to level-up your pro training, your PADI Regional Training Consultant and Instructor Development team members are ready to help. Contact them for an assessment of your current program and guidance to help create an effective career development program that stands out from the crowd.
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