Instructors Proficiency

[Lil' Irish Temper]

Not trying to be a troll, but I'm sure it's going to be taken that way by someone.

The military requires drills and school instructors be tested after every cycle.

Police must take proficiency test in weapons. Most of corporate America requires reviews of how you are doing at your job.

I'm sure some of you instructors know other instructors that you think probably shouldn't be teaching, but they still are.

Why doesn't PADI or NAUI require Instructors to take proficiency tests?

 

[abitton]

Having been (in a previous life) a CPR BLS/first response instructor, I find that this is a very interesteing question.

We actually had to go through a "recertification" process every 3 years, if my memory serves me well...

As teaching scuba diving is a form of BLS, I see no reason why a refresher shouldn't be mandatory...

OK, now I'm going to get it...

Not trying to be a troll, but I'm sure it's going to be taken that way by someone.

The military requires drills and school instructors be tested after every cycle.
Police must take proficiency test in weapons. Most of corporate America requires reviews of how you are doing at your job.

I'm sure some of you instructors know other instructors that you think probably shouldn't be teaching, but they still are.

Why doesn't PADI or NAUI require Instructors to take proficiency tests?

 

[MikeFerrara]

While the company I work for does give preformance reviews the school I went to all those years ago and who issued the degree that I still have hasn't checked up on me lately.

The fact is that certification agencies aren't the employer (in most cases) and, in fact, instructors are paying customers of the agency. A dive shop or resort that does employ an instructor can impliment whatever employee review system they want. Notice that in your two examples (police and military) it's the employer doing the testing.

 

[SteveFass]

Mike,
There's other examples where the certifying agency is not the employer: How about Medicine - a board certified doc has to get re-certified every xx years.

 

[Lil' Irish Temper]

Ok, bad examples - Nationally Certified EMT's must pass the D.O.T. EMT refresher course every 2 years or lose their cert.

I'm pretty sure the FAA doesn't turn Commercial Jet pilots loose and say, fly till you want to quit.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Mike,
There's other examples where the certifying agency is not the employer: How about Medicine - a board certified doc has to get re-certified every xx years.

I guess I don't know how that works. What's involved in the recertification? PADI instructors get reinstated every year. They send their money in and if there are no QA problems and the check clears they're in.

Depending on agency of course, the actual dive skills of an instructor aren't always tested very well in the first place. In the case of PADI they perform a few simple skills from the OW class and a rescue. The skills are usually done while kneeling and what does that prove?!!! Except for the rescue, many recent OW grads could easily pass the skills test. They are given a written test of dive theory and agency standards. They are evaluated while teaching skills to other candidates acting as students but there is not prereq requireing them to have ever actually been involved in any training with real students since the DM course can be done with fake students also.

So I guess my question would be, if no one makes sure they can dive before making them instructors in the first place why worry about going back to check later?

 

[MikeFerrara]

Ok, bad examples - Nationally Certified EMT's must pass the D.O.T. EMT refresher course every 2 years or lose their cert.

I'm pretty sure the FAA doesn't turn Commercial Jet pilots loose and say, fly till you want to quit.

What do you think the FAA requires?

 

[Lil' Irish Temper]

What do you think the FAA requires?

I don't know. I'm just guessing on that one.
BigJetDriver could answer that one.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I don't know. I'm just guessing on that one.
BigJetDriver could answer that one.

In other ratings the FAA requires medical checkups and that you stay current in certain things which can be done with logged flight experience or checkrides with an instructor/examiner. I don't know if it's any different for a commercial rating or not.

Some dive agencies like IANTD do require that an instructor teach a certain number of students each year to stay current.

 

[TCDiver1]

Personally, i see a distinct difference between EMT's, pilots, doctors and scuba instructors. EMT's, Docs can deal with life and death daily as part of their job. I don't see much of a similarity there. Sure, diving can be life & death if done wrong but i haven't had to stuff anyones guts back in to do my job yet.

The same goes for commercial pilots. They are typically responsible for the hundreds of lives on their aircraft. Factor in urban areas they fly over, and their job can literally impact thousands of people each flight. Scuba classes aren't usually that big.

I'm not against the idea of recertification for scuba instructors if done right. But i don't see the life and death issue with it like some other professions mentioned in this thread.