What is an "Instructor Factory"?

[lucybuykx]

Well I've only been diving for 4 years but I'll give it a shot from my perspective as a land locked DM that "works" in the industry as a hobby, ........Bottom line is that if you rush people through without A: real world diving experience in varied environments and B: No real MENTORING as I see it, you'll pump out crappy Instructors with no real value to offer their students.

Interesting juxtaposition.... I think you intend the hobbyist and the rush through training to be contrasted with each other, but my experience is that they co-exist.

I 110% agree with you that proto-professional-divers should go for as much "real world" diving experience as they can, and mentoring is a well proven methodology for developing personal strengths and capabilities.

However I 'work' for a shop that is hobbyist. i.e. there is an expenses system but what it pays out does not cover the cost of petrol to the dive site, let alone over-nights and hours of work.

The shop also pushes forward training like crazy. Become a DM! Become an instructor! Become a staff instructor!

You could argue it is all money through the till (it is) but it works at a different level as well. More dive master trainees makes for free rescue divers during courses. More newbie instructors makes for more 'teaching-for-certs' which does not qualify for expenses. More staff instructors means more low cost ways of making more divemaster trainees.... and around it goes...

And unfortunately because the training sites are two quarries, it is possible to get all the way up there with little 'real world' (sea?) experience even in a hobbyist environment!

 

[Doc]

Instructor factories are highly recommended if all you need to do is to go through the classes and write the tests.

You will learn nothing in any IDC program other than "how to teach".

It will not make you a diver or a better diver. I forget~ how many dives at depth were required? 2?

If you want something other than an "instructor factory", sign up for an IDC where you'll be able to drag it out through 200 or however many dives until you're secure in that specific environment to perform the demonstration level skills. Then, go out in the real world and deal with it.

Or... do it the smart way- in reverse. Learn to dive first, learn to dive in as many conditions as possible, different boats, 15' to 140' long, shore dives, surf, cold and warm. Learn how to spot critters, make pictures, night dive. Then go get the certificate.

I did my IDC & IE at one of the biggest schools. I went there because I wanted to have the course rapidly, then write the test. The rest of my classmates had what you might refer to as "under 200 dives".

 

[in_cavediver]

Instructor factories are highly recommended if all you need to do is to go through the classes and write the tests.

You will learn nothing in any IDC program other than "how to teach".

It will not make you a diver or a better diver. I forget~ how many dives at depth were required? 2?

If you want something other than an "instructor factory", sign up for an IDC where you'll be able to drag it out through 200 or however many dives until you're secure in that specific environment to perform the demonstration level skills. Then, go out in the real world and deal with it.

Or... do it the smart way- in reverse. Learn to dive first, learn to dive in as many conditions as possible, different boats, 15' to 140' long, shore dives, surf, cold and warm. Learn how to spot critters, make pictures, night dive. Then go get the certificate.

I did my IDC & IE at one of the biggest schools. I went there because I wanted to have the course rapidly, then write the test. The rest of my classmates had what you might refer to as "under 200 dives".

This is an excellent point. I had been combining the idea of an fast paced IDC with the zero/hero concept rather than looking at what exactly should be in an IDC. I personally don't think dive skills should be taught at this point. (other than that many candidates may still need to learn some of them). Perhaps dredging up one of the hundreds of 'Is XXX dives enough to be an instructor' threads is a more appropriate place to look.

I also am personally considering becoming an instructor and realized all I needed was a good 'how to teach' program rather than the 'how to dive and how to teach' program. (and I dm'd for a couple years as well for expierence)

 

[RiverRat]

The shop also pushes forward training like crazy. Become a DM! Become an instructor! Become a staff instructor!

Yeah that's been my experience as well! What's the rush? I know, money, money and more money. But I've recently come across another shop in my area that is doing things a lot differently. They're churning out better divers. And his instructors are of a higher caliber as well. They offer better classes and teach a hybrid of standard OW and technical stuff. I'm not totally familier with how this guy does it but so far I like what I see. The last class I was in he had 2 pools going and about 49 students. So he's got plenty of work. If he can provide a better quality of instruction and still get all that work then anyone can. No excuses. I find that working for some LDS' can really limit how you can teach. Nothing like arriving to help an instructor with OW to find out the LDS decided to have a couple show up for a refresher and someone else shows up to try gear etc. etc. Now you've just cut the time in half you can devote to helping out the instructor. So now he's throwing loads of lead on some students to get them down just to do the skills. And when the time comes to work on buoyancy and trim with the students he has to rush through it so we can get out of the pool on time. Then several weeks later I go to help out on OW dives with another instructor. Now we've got the same students I helped in the pool. The "new" instructor really doesn't know where the "old" instructor left off and is asking me questions. Disorganized crap like that drives me crazy and in the end the students lose out. So imagine getting trained like that. Maybe going out and doing the minimum required OW dives and then becoming a DM and then an instructor and working in the same environment. No real handle on your own dive skills. Maybe you even only do "pool work" while the other instructors do OW or both. Couple that with the trend to continually lower the training standards and viola, instructor/diver factory.........

 

[lucybuykx]

.... Nothing like arriving to help an instructor with OW to find out the LDS decided to have a couple show up for a refresher and someone else shows up to try gear etc. etc. Now you've just cut the time in half you can devote to helping out the instructor....

Or arriving as an instructor for to help out discover scubas and get 3 open water students all at different confined water levels who must get through in the next couple of hours because they are on referral for a holiday next weekend.

Or arriving to find your classroom booking has been 'overlooked' and you have to work in the back of the kit room.

Or your team of dive masters have sorted all the tanks, packed the van and then a party of kids arrives for a bubble maker party ("oh sorry, must have forgot to put the booking on the board") and lo there are no more tanks and bcds....

Perhaps it is good experience to work with less than perfect organisation. It does keep one on ones toes!

 

[The Dive Advisor]

A lot of these "internship" programs are aimed at people wanting to change careers and start over with a new life/vocation. I would think that for these type of people, the dive when you can until get experience idea just isn't appropriate. If people are giving up their current jobs and want to start a new career where they can again start paying the rent, then isn't what most of you propose just take too long?

In that case, you are in a "career training school" mode. But there are different modesl of these. What would set a "good" program apart from a "bad" one?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

In that case, you are in a "career training school" mode. But there are different modesl of these. What would set a "good" program apart from a "bad" one?

Different for different canidates, possibly different from season to season, likely different from year to year. When I went to Ocean Divers (Key Largo) I also considered Pro Dive (Ft. Lauderdale) and Halls (Marathon), all chosen because of their career adds in the fluffy dive mags. Halls had a wet sub and I was involved in a submersible boat project. Ft. Lauderdale has night life. The Ocean Divers CD had great videographer credits and promised me PADI rebreather specialty instructor qualifications, plus they co-op with Stephen Frink and dive the Duane and Bibb.

I fell for the rebreather sales pitch, but got unlimited diving in writing. Said not really famous CD left in the middle to shoot video for some National Geo trip (?), replaced by some cocky Ausie wonder CD. Stephen Frink is pretty busy being famous but his right hand man/training director (Michael Waters) was a highlight. Best part was OD's Neighbors (Dick Rutkowski & Larry Heiskell). Another plus was the clientel diving the wrecks (now including Speigle Grove) on Ocean Divers cattle boats; real world near incident nearly every trip (including DM canidates at 105' with 500psi). I was not too impressed with the quality of my PADI AOW to OWSI and beyond in ~2 months with OD, but even the bad stuff was highly educational.

Because I fell for Frasier's questionable rebreather instructor sales pitch, I got IANTD rebreather training with Larry and IANTD Instructor crossover with the founder of recreational nitrox diving (both priceless). Unfortunately for the rest of my IDC classmates, I was the only one so lucky.