Quality of Students

[GDI]

:doctor:
Do you think that it is the training agency or the Instructor who has the most impact on the quality of skills produced in new divers?

 

[ScubaScott]

Without a doubt, the instructor. Agencies only provide guidelines and minimum requirements. The instructors are the ones that teach skills - whether they be good or not so good at it is another thread.........

SS

 

[TigerShark]

The Instructor !!!

That's for sure......esp in the open water course,the new diver has zero diving experience and will hung on to wat the instructor teaches........so the instructor plays a very impt role !

:grad:

 

[mddolson]

I agree: Without a doubt, the instructor.

The instructor has a legal and moral obligation to comply with the standards set by the agency he teaches under.

read the post: "Meeting the Enemy"
http://www.scubaboard.com/t17311/s.html

However the agencies are also responsible here.
PADI in particular is guilty of reducing required hours, reducing age requirements and compressing, and splitting progams in to "Sell Up" options.

The agencies must also do a better job of enforcing and policing their standards.

Mike D
NAUI 4780
PADI 202288

 

[dotyj]

I'll pretend I'm an AOLer and post a me too!

I don't care how good the agency is, the student's training comes down to the quality of the instructor.

I see this all the time in the school district I work for. We have great instructors and we have poor instructors and you can see it in our students. State guidlines are set, it's up to the school district and teachers to make sure they're met.

Doesn't seem to matter what you're learning, you learn more from good instructors than bad instructors.

 

[pdoege]

The instructors are the gatekeepers of the SCUBA world. If an instructor is just going through the motions, churning out students, then there really isn't anything that the agency can do.

A good instructor can compensate for a crappy agency.

I suppose that a good agency can axe crappy instructors, but there is the problem of finding them.

Peter

 

[Nessie]

The Instructor!
The standards set by the agencies can not be something else than minimum, and the instructor has to adapt them according to the circumstances and the students.
I am teaching CMAS and PADI and I can´t see a difference in the certified students. Even if I would teach students without any agency, I believe they would be as good (or bad ) as the average of my students. It is the instructor´s responsibility to decide how much higher than required we set the standards.
That said, the dive shop plays an important role as well. I once worked for a shop in Malta where I was expected to certfify every student in the shortest time possible, teaching classes of language students who didn´t understand a word, class-room lessons with about 30 students. Well, I left after 2 weeks, but the shop-owner is a Course Director now and I can´t imagine that she does teach the new Instructors anything of this "higher standards than PADI requires"-philosophy.

 

[Scuba]

Nessie wrote:

The standards set by the agencies can not be something else than minimum,

And when that minimum is barely more than "Don't Drown And You Pass". It's all totally up to the interests and ethics of each and every instructor.

 

[mudguppy]

pdoege once bubbled...
[B

A good instructor can compensate for a crappy agency.


[/B]

DITTO!

 

[detroit diver]

Sorry, I'm going to buck this trend. I didn't vote at all because I didn't like any of your choices!

I think they're equally important. If your training agency puts out a course that doesn't teach what should be taught, and the instructors follows it's guidelines, then they both are guilty. The instructor may be able to mitigate this to some extent based on his/her desire.

On the other hand, if your training agency sets a high level of skill requirements and proficiency, and holds the instructor to it's standards, then they will turn out a far better quality student.