Where to Get SCUBA Certification

SCUBA diving instruction is in demand all over the world and most resorts will have various openings for qualified and certified SCUBA diving instructors.

Aside from taking the resort guests on tours of the surrounding reefs and oceans in your location, SCUBA instructors also perform various training tasks, where they will teach children how to dive or teach guests how to use the SCUBA equipment safely. Some resort guests will have experience in SCUBA diving and might be certified to a certain level by one of the internationally recognized agencies such as PADI, but most of the time the SCUBA instructor will need to teach the guests how to dive from scratch. This requires a level of advanced training that one can only achieve through an accredited organization.

Where to Train

SCUBA diving is a recreational activity or sport and as such there are no specific colleges or schools that teach you how to dive and how to become a diving instructor. Instead there are recognized organizations that offer SCUBA diving courses designed to teach you how to safely SCUBA dive and if you want to pursue it as a career, they will offer advanced instructor training so that you can teach others. This can lead to jobs like that of a resort SCUBA diving instructor. Aside from learning how to SCUBA dive, the training you receive should also include first aid, CPR and emergency rescue.

Training can take place through the following organizations:

PADI: Professional Association of Diving Instructors

Here you will find that there are not only courses for divers, but also technical and professional courses as well as online courses. The list of courses is as follows:

Online Courses
Discover Scuba Diving (10yrs+)
Bubblemaker (8yrs+)
Seal Team (8yrs+)
Skin Diver
Open Water Diver (10yrs+)
Scuba Diver 
Advanced Open Water Diver
Adventure Diver
Master Scuba Diver Rating
Scuba Review Tune-up
Rescue Diver
Emergency First Response
Emergency Oxygen Provider
Altitude Diver
AWARE Fish ID
Boat Diver
Cavern Diver
Coral Reef Conservation Diver
Deep Diver
Digital Underwater Photographer
Diver Propulsion Vehicle Diver
Drift Diver
Dry Suit Diver
Enriched Air Diver
Equipment Specialist
Ice Diver
Multilevel Diver
National Geographic Diver
Night Diver
Peak Performance Buoyancy
Project AWARE Specialist
Search and Recovery Diver
Semiclosed Rebreather
Underwater Naturalist
Underwater Navigator
Underwater Videographer
Wreck Diver
Discover Tec Diving
Tec 40, 50 and 60
Tec Trimix Diver
Tec Gas Blender
Divemaster
Assistant Instructor
Open Water Scuba Instructor
Specialty Instructor
Master Instructor Rating
Technical Diving Instructor
Teach Professional Instructor Training
IDC Staff Instructor
Course Director
Emergency First Response Instructor

Aside from these courses, PADI also holds special group training for those who want to turn SCUBA diving into a career and become instructors, such as the Rich Coast Diving IDC instructor course.

NAUI: National Association of Underwater Instructors

NAUI offers 50 years of experience in SCUBA training with courses ranging from beginner to course director. The progression is as follows:

NAUI Skin Diver
SCUBA Diver
Advanced SCUBA Diver
Deep Diver
Dry Suit Diver
Scuba Rescue Diver
Search and Recovery Diver
Training Assistant
Underwater Archeologist, Ecologist, Environment, Photographer, and Hunter and Collector
Wreck Diver (External Survey)
Master SCUBA Diver
Cave Diver (Levels I, II and III)
Cavern Diver
CCR Mixed Gas Diver
Ice Diver
Various Technical diving courses
Wreck Penetration Diver
Assistant Instructor Leadership Courses
Skin Diving Instructor
Divemaster

SSI: Scuba Schools International

With SSI you can also take part in online courses and there is a range of recreational diver and pro diver courses that you can take along with a free diver program.

The range of courses will give you all the experience and certifications you require to work as a SCUBA diving instructor.

Did You Know? The depth limit for a recreational SCUBA diver is 40 meters or 130 feet.

Length of Training

The length of time that it takes to become a master diver or a diving instructor depends on how dedicated you are to your training, and how many hours of dive time you put in. With PADI you can complete your open water diving course in about 3 or 4 days provided that you do the classroom sections online.

Training Requirements

There are certain requirements for SCUBA training including being of a certain age depending on the level of dive training. The minimum age for taking courses is 10 years old with 15 being the minimum age for the adult courses. For the online training, due to internet laws you have to be 13 years old. For most courses you will need to have completed the previous level. All courses require you to be physically fit and an able swimmer.

Quick Summary:

• It can take 3 to 4 days to complete a basic SCUBA diving course.
• You have to be a minimum of 10 years old to complete the Junior SCUBA diving courses.
• SCUBA training programs can be found all around the world.