What are the current part time commercial opportunities?

[Jimnibob]

Hi

I am a retired police officer and currently working as a part time mines rescue workers. I am also near to qualifying as a BSAC dive instructor.

I love diving and doing rescue work. However, the idea of commercial diving has always appealed to me. As I am semi retired and have no kids I have started to wonder what opportunities there might be for me to earn a little bit of money through diving.

What opportunities are there for part time commercial diving? What sectors of commercial diving might such opportunities be in? What would people advise as a course of enquiry to pursue this further?

I'd appreciate any advice.

Cheers

James

 

[Edward3c]

Hi James,

I’m making the assumption you’re in the U.K.

To work in diving you need to meet the Diving at Work Regulations overseen by the HSE.

With the exception of scientific and teaching recreational diving you’ll need to a commercial diving qualification. These start at about £10k, see here.

 

[Jimnibob]

Thanks for the link.

I suspect a relevant qualification will be needed for scientific and archaeological work such as in marine biology.

It might be worth me contacting the training provider re opportunities

 

[Edward3c]

Thanks for the link.

I suspect a relevant qualification will be needed for scientific and archaeological work such as in marine biology.

It might be worth me contacting the training provider re opportunities

You’ll find this HSE guidance doc informative.

 

[Heliumthief]

If you want to get into archeology or marine biology, you won’t be looking to get paid much (if at all) and unless you can get volunteer work (as far as I’m aware, PADI etc. Will suffice) then you would have to go back to university to get involved. (Stirling university used to have a well known underwater archeology course for example).

I believe that in certain circumstances a PADI qualification and medical would allow you to dive for Scallops for example, but if you are serious about picking up commercial work, you will need at least a surface-supplied cert accepted by the HSE which would give you access to inshore projects, civil construction aquaculture etc.

In the U.K., there are very few ‘full time’ or employed divers. It is an almost wholly self-employed discipline, and while we are past the worst part of a very bad cycle, it still can be hard to break into the business and get your name about, experience etc. Having said that, if you happen to be in the right location, you could always pick up the odd prop job, salmon farm or canal call out work, but you will always be the one waiting for the phone call..

 

[Edward3c]

...

I believe that in certain circumstances a PADI qualification and medical would allow you to dive for Scallops for example,

Following the successful prosecution of a scallop boat skipper, I doubt many skippers will be willing to use non-HSE trained divers.

 

[Heliumthief]

Couldn’t agree more; I think it’s ludicrous that there can be some commercial jobs that don’t require a commercial ticket, but nevertheless there are loopholes that allow this in scalloping, while the HSE require the boat to be run as a commercial operation in every other respect. If the ‘contractor’ is fine with a PADI diver picking up his clams, will his TRA’s, secondary methods of recovery or paperwork be up to scratch?