Tricky student

[Beanbag1]

Quite so Diver0001!

All I have to do now is get it past the committee.

 

[Mustard Dave]

Once the others had helped to clean the blood from his shirt I suggested that he might like to find a PADI school, of which there are many fine ones locally, where he could pay for his instruction and thereby be released from the expectation that he would put back into our club what he had taken out (none of the instructors get even as much as expenses for training, so fuel to get to the site and entry fees for the quarries come out of our own pockets). I also suggested that he might like to join the 21st century.

Thanks for that! We'd only just got rid of one matching his description!

Out of interest, what club are you from? I'm looking for a BSAC club in the Manchester area.

 

[dbulmer]

BeanBag1,

In future, see if you can get prospective members in the pub after club night if at all possible. It's amazing how valuable meetings in the club can be as a means of getting to know people.

 

[Edward3c]

I met with my student yesterday and I asked him what he wanted to get from learning to dive.

He said he wanted to be able to dive when he goes abroad on holiday. I asked him if he had any plans to dive in the UK (drysuit diving) and he said no. I asked him what part he planned to take in our club once qualified (we are a BSAC club who trains students for free in order that they become members of our dive club and contribute to planning dive trips, improving their skills and helping other new divers to further theri training). He said he had no intention of diving in the UK, would not consider staying in the sort of accommodation we use on club trips (liveaboards, caravans or hostel type usually), and did not want to improve his skills beyond getting a certification which would allow him to dive on holiday.

I then explained that I was concerned that our training sessions to date had not gone well because I felt that he was either not concentrating on the drills, or because there was some other problem with the way in which he was being trained. I asked him if there was anything I could do which might help him to focus and comply with my instructions. He said 'I feel uncomfortable taking instructions from a woman'. I am not joking.

Once the others had helped to clean the blood from his shirt I suggested that he might like to find a PADI school, of which there are many fine ones locally, where he could pay for his instruction and thereby be released from the expectation that he would put back into our club what he had taken out (none of the instructors get even as much as expenses for training, so fuel to get to the site and entry fees for the quarries come out of our own pockets). I also suggested that he might like to join the 21st century.

One important learning point did come out of this.

Not one person, from the one who signed him up as a member, to any of the instructors (me included initially), sat down and established his motivation or what he wanted to get out of the training. In retrospect this was a huge error on our part. As it happens this man was a berk in as much as he was willing to exploit us under false pretences. However, it brought home to me that by the club making assumptions about trainees we fail to understand where they are approaching their training from. He could equally have had a genuine reason for the dificulties I encountered with his training. However, that was never established so we all wasted a lot of time and money.

I am going to propose we have an application form with pertinent questions on it and a sheet that instructors can refer to which lists issues which should be addressed with new trainees before they even get near the water. It struck me today that other than the medical questions and fitness to dive certificates we insist on, we have no idea who we are taking underwater. That's quite scarey and potentially dangerous (for them as much as anything else).

Hi,

Whenever I take a student for the first time I always ask, as part of the pre-lesson chat, what they expect to do once qualified.

Most haven’t thought that far ahead and just want to learn to dive – as they saw it on TV or in a film. In over 20 years I could count on one hand those that stated clearly that they only wanted to dive abroad. The Ocean Diver theory lessons should have made it clear to your student what sort of diving he was being trained for. As for not wanting to be taught by a woman – more fool him.

As for wasting your time, NO you haven’t. You’ve gained a valuable lesson (that’s what I love about teaching, I learn all the time) and the student may well talk to someone else who does want club type training. And if your Branch has its membership costs right he will have contributed to Branch funds.

Kind regards