What to do if Instructors Teaching Credentials are no longer valid
- Thread starter rkasbaum
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
PADi and I'm in the process of contacting them, I have all of the needed documents properly dated and signed showing I completed while he was active. I delayed filing because I needed to get the money together for the insurance. So, I'm going to ask if his current status will have any impact on me filing.
It is my understanding that for PADI US, you only need professional liability insurance if you are going to be working as DM, not just holding the credential...and if you are working as a DM for a shop you may be covered under their policy.
For PADI EU, my experience is they expect you to have the professional liability insurance regardless of whether you are "working" as a DM or not.
-Z
For PADI EU, my experience is they expect you to have the professional liability insurance regardless of whether you are "working" as a DM or not.
-Z
Cthippo
Contributor
There's a lot going on here.
1. Who says your application won't be processed? If you submit a PADI Divemaster application with a signature from a certifying instructor who was an active instructor on the date the certifying signature was affixed, PADI should honor it. Remember, the DM candidate, not the dive center or the instructor, is the one who submits the DM application to PADI. Send it in and see what happens. (You might want to include documentation of the the instructor's status on the date of the signature.)
2. If the certifying instructor did not sign the application while still in active status, then his opinion that you fulfilled the requirements will carry no weight with PADI or any PADI instructor.
3. The explanation that the instructor was suspended pending an investigation that was subsequently abandoned seems inconsistent with the PADI quality management flowchart. You should seek more specific information about the instructor's status, how and when and why it was downgraded, and what he needs to do to regain active status. Ask for documentation.
4. This may be a consumer protection issue. If the instructor accepted your fee for a DM course and then failed to maintain the credential required to certify your application, there may be a state or local consumer protection authority that can help you get your money back. (This assumes you made adequate progress.)
Best wishes,
1. Who says your application won't be processed? If you submit a PADI Divemaster application with a signature from a certifying instructor who was an active instructor on the date the certifying signature was affixed, PADI should honor it. Remember, the DM candidate, not the dive center or the instructor, is the one who submits the DM application to PADI. Send it in and see what happens. (You might want to include documentation of the the instructor's status on the date of the signature.)
2. If the certifying instructor did not sign the application while still in active status, then his opinion that you fulfilled the requirements will carry no weight with PADI or any PADI instructor.
3. The explanation that the instructor was suspended pending an investigation that was subsequently abandoned seems inconsistent with the PADI quality management flowchart. You should seek more specific information about the instructor's status, how and when and why it was downgraded, and what he needs to do to regain active status. Ask for documentation.
4. This may be a consumer protection issue. If the instructor accepted your fee for a DM course and then failed to maintain the credential required to certify your application, there may be a state or local consumer protection authority that can help you get your money back. (This assumes you made adequate progress.)
Best wishes,
This raises a fundamental issue, irrespective of agency.
If a certifying body will accept an in-active instructor's signature for a course. Why would any instructor bother registering with, and paying, an agency?
BSAC is looking at an app where lessons are signed-off by the instructor. If the instructor isn't a paid-up member the app will not accept the lesson as complete. Additionally, for specialist courses the app will check the instructor is approved to teach it.
Out of curiosity, if a DiveMaster candidate came to another instructor claiming they've been through the course material, would it only take a few minutes in the water to check out their skills? A full skills-circuit shouldn't take more than a short dive? A short interview with some quick-fire questions would show if they are competent with other aspects of being a DiveMaster and all the stories of assisting instructors, etc.
Also, any DiveMaster should be more than happy to demonstrate their superior skills.
Anyone can come then and claim to have gone through a course and that they are ready and just need a sign off, for any course. No, if I am going to sign their card, they are doing the training with me and I have to be present in all work. If their instructor was so unprofessional and borderline crook, that's another reason I won't take anyone's word for it, none!
It strikes me that where the agency -- PADI -- has an issue with their instructor, they have an obligation to assess and train ongoing candidates of that instructor.
Aren't all instructors working under the auspices of a dive "shop"'s course director? They need to do some work in reallocating students under the circumstances described by the OP.
Aren't all instructors working under the auspices of a dive "shop"'s course director? They need to do some work in reallocating students under the circumstances described by the OP.
Similar threads
