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Koh Tao Scuba Instructor Internship: Beginner to Master Scuba Diver Trainer

8 Months | 340,000 baht

Thailand Scuba Diving Internship includes:

• PADI Dive Training from beginner to PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT)
• Teach at least 25 PADI certifications
• Instructor Ratings for 5 PADI Specialty courses (Deep, Enriched Air Nitrox, Underwater Navigation, Equipment Specialist, Search and Recovery)
• Full set of scuba diving equipment
• All required materials and PADI certification fees
• Unlimited scuba diving - make hundreds of dives
• 8 Months resort accommodation, close to the dive school

PADI Scuba Instructor Internship Thailand: Introduction

Teaching people how to scuba dive on a picturesque paradise island is a daily reality for PADI Instructors working on Koh Tao.

This Thailand PADI scuba instructor internship is a complete package providing you with the skills, experience, knowledge and professional qualifications you need to work as a scuba diving instructor.

Plus you'll get valuable teaching experience, conducting your first 25 PADI certifications under the guidance of our experienced team of instructors. You'll be trained to PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, then take the next step to PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT), which means you'll be qualified to teach all PADI courses up to and including PADI Divemaster, plus will be qualified to teach PADI Specialty courses including deep diving, enriched air nitrox diving and more.

Most importantly you'll have a fantastic time here at Simple Life, gradually taking on responsibility and getting real hands on experience as you advance through the PADI Scuba Instructor Internship. You'll become a valued member of our Koh Tao dive team, meeting and working together with people from all over the world, and get to log many dives on the spectacular coral reefs, deep isolated pinnacles and ship wreck dive sites around Koh Tao.

Let's examine how the training runs and exactly what's involved in the dive internship:

Koh Tao, Thailand Dive Internship: PADI Courses

You'll work through PADI dive courses, increasing your scuba diving knowledge, skills and experience at each stage. All courses at Simple Life Divers are conducted by our team of experienced western instructors with small group sizes, so you'll be sure to learn lots and have a great time. Let's look at the steps:

1. PADI Open Water course: Your first step is to learn to scuba dive, working through some basic scuba diving theory in the classroom and making a shallow water skills session to get familiar with scuba gear in the swimming pool. Next you'll be enjoying open water dives out in the sea where you'll master buoyancy control and get to check out the amazing coral reefs and marine life around Koh Tao, Thailand.
2. PADI Advanced Open Water course: Next step is to broaden your scuba diving skills and experience in the advanced course. You'll learn about underwater navigation using a compass and natural navigation to lead a dive, and go right down to 30M getting your first taste of nitrogen narcosis on the deep dive. In the night dive you'll plunge into the darkness with a flashlight to study nocturnal marine life, and in the buoyancy dive you'll fine tune your buoyancy control and air consumption allowing you to dive for longer.
3. Emergency First Responder: All PADI dive professionals must hold a current CPR-First Aid qualification in case of emergencies. You'll watch a DVD, master first aid skills in a practical workshop session and answer a few simple questions to verify your understanding.
4. PADI Rescue Diver Course: Training steps up a gear in the rescue diver course, which is both demanding and lots of fun. Our scuba instructors will teach you how to deal with problems at the surface such as assisting tired, panicked and unconscious swimmers and scuba divers. You'll learn how to safely approach, assess and assist the victim. Then we'll move into underwater problems including coping with overexerted divers, buoyancy problems and running search patterns to locate missing divers. The rescue diver course finishes with an afternoon of final scenarios, where you'll be in charge of the dive boat whilst the staff simulate lots of problems. Challenging but very rewarding.
5. DAN (Divers Alert Network) Oxygen Administrator: Victims of serious scuba diving related problems such as decompression illness or lung over expansion injuries may have a much better chance of making a full recovery if they're given 100% oxygen as a first aid treatment. You'll learn how to administer oxygen, using the correct flow rate and delivery technique, keeping the patient as comfortable as possible until you reach professional medical care.

6. PADI Divemaster Internship: Next the transition to dive professional. PADI Divemaster training gets you ready to take control of scuba diving logistics, lead certified divers on scuba tours of the Koh Tao dive sites, and assist dive instructors in the training of new PADI divers. Each day you'll be working and diving together with our team of instructors, learning how a busy PADI dive school runs and taking on real responsibility. You'll also complete lots of exercises including underwater skills circuits to polish your dive skills to perfection, mapping one of Koh Tao's dive sites, watermanship and stamina exercises, underwater problem solving and more. You'll also work through detailed scuba diving theory covering all important aspects of diving such as physics, physiology, scuba equipment, decompression theory, environment and the industry standards which we work to. The end result is that you'll become an expert diver and role model that over divers look up to.
7. PADI Deep Specialty: Get certified to dive right down to the recreational diving limit of 40M, enjoying awesome diving with the sharks at Koh Tao's Chumphon Pinnacles.
8. PADI Enriched Air Nitrox Diver Specialty: Scuba diving using enriched air (nitrox) allows divers to stay deeper for longer, or can be used to enhance the conservatism of dives. You'll be trained to dive with nitrox mixes containing up to 40% oxygen.
9. PADI Underwater Navigation Specialty: As a dive professional it's critical that you're able to navigate underwater, as you'll be required to guide real customers on dives, showing them around the Koh Tao diving sites and leading them back to the boat. The PADI navigation specialty develops your navigation skills, focusing on the use of a compass, gauges and timing device combined with natural navigation techniques utilizing bottom composition, depth, contour, aquatic life, sound and dive site features.
10. PADI Equipment Specialist Course: Not only is scuba diving equipment expensive, but it's also your life support equipment for breathing underwater. You'll want to know your dive gear is properly maintained and functioning correctly. The PADI equipment specialty introduces you to scuba gear care and maintenance.

11. PADI Search and Recovery Diver Specialty: Koh Tao, Thailand is a busy dive destination with many boats full of snorkelers and scuba divers. It's not unusual for items to be accidentally dropped over the side of boats. Ask any seasoned Thailand diving instructor and they'll be sure to have found some 'treasure' around the Koh Tao dive sites - masks, snorkels, dive knifes, even watches, digital underwater cameras, torches and expensive dive computers. The PADI search and recovery specialty teaches you how to plan and execute search patterns to recover lost items. This includes using lifting devices to bring heavy objects to the surface.
12. PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC): Now we train you how to teach diving in an 18 day intensive course. You'll practice delivering classroom presentations, confined water skills sessions and open water lessons in the sea, identifying and responding to student diver problems. During the IDC the your learning increment will be steep and you'll get a real sense of accomplishment from your progress.
13. PADI Instructor Examination (IE): The IE is an external examination conducted by PADI Instructor examiners from the Asia-Pacific headquarters in Australia. The three day exam is designed to make sure you meet the high standards required to work as a PADI Instructor. You'll be assessed on your ability to teach scuba diving theory, conduct shallow water training sessions and run open water classes in the ocean, ensuring the safety of your students and tackling any problems. You'll also be tested on your knowledge of scuba diving theory and ability to follow dive industry standards. Having taken a dive internship with Simple Life, you'll be well prepared to excel in the instructor examination, at the end of which you'll be presented with your qualification as a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. Then we'll probably have a small party to celebrate.

14. PADI Scuba Instructor Internship: Now it's time to develop your teaching style and get your first experience teaching new scuba divers. Under the guidance and advice of our seasoned team of PADI Instructors you'll teach your first 25 certifications. This will be teaching a mix of all the entry level PADI courses - Open Water, Advanced and Rescue Diver courses. You'll get lots of feedback and advice from our experienced instructors and will gain lots of confidence as an instructor. This is invaluable experience.
15. PADI Specialty Instructor Ratings : You'll also receive instructor ratings for 5 specialty courses - Deep Diver Specialty Instructor, Enriched Air Specialty Instructor, PADI Equipment Specialty Instructor, Underwater Navigation Specialty Instructor and PADI Search and Recovery Specialty Instructor. This means you'll be qualified to teach each of those diver specialties, allowing you to offer much more as a PADI Instructor.
16. PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer: Finally you'll be certified as a PADI Master Scuba Diving Trainer, distinguishing you for your experience and teaching abilities above that of a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. If you plan to seek paid gap year work as a PADI Instructor, this will set you apart from the crowd and give you a big advantage over new instructors.

At any stage you can take some time out and enjoy some non-training fun dives. This is encouraged as a way to develop your sense of underwater navigation, plus to simply appreciate the great scuba diving of the Gulf of Thailand. You'll pair up with another intern, exploring Koh Tao's coral reefs, pinnacle dive sites and wrecks.

PADI Scuba Instructor Internship: Diving Equipment

Designed with Koh Tao's tropical climate and warm water diving conditions in mind, you'll get your own complete set of brand named, professional scuba diving equipment to keep:

• Quality Silicone Scuba Diving Mask & Snorkel
• Regulator Set (1st Stage, Primary and Alternate 2nd Stages, pressure and depth gauges and LPI hose)
• Buoyancy Control Device (BCD)
• Open Heel Diving Fins
• Wetsuit booties
• 2.5mm Neoprene Shorty Wetsuit
• Stainless Steel Divers Knife
• Underwater Wrist Compass
• Safety Marker Buoy (SMB)
• Pocket Mask
• Slate
• Whistle
• Equipment bag

Training Materials and PADI Certification Fees

As part of the PADI Scuba Instructor internship you'll get all the course manuals and materials which you need, plus all certification fees are covered. There are no hidden extras:

• Entry Level PADI Materials: PADI Open Water Manual, Advanced Diver Manual, Emergency First Responder Manual, PADI Rescue Diver Manual, Recreational Dive Planner Table, Adventures in Diving Slate, Emergency Management Slate
• Professional Level Materials: PADI Divemaster Manual, Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving, PADI Diving Knowledge Workbook, PADI Instructor Manual, PADI Emergency First Response instructor manual, PADI IDC Candidate Workbook, DM Slates, Instructor Cue Cards, Lesson Preparation slates, Student Exam booklets, electronic dive planner - multi level version, Specialty course instructor outlines
• PADI Fees: Divemaster application Fee, Open Water Scuba Instructor application fee and instructor examination fees, Emergency First Response Instructor Application Fee, Specialty application Fees and Master Scuba Diver Trainer Application Fee.

As you've probably noticed, training through to PADI Instructor in Thailand means you'll be getting a lot of materials. One option is that you can save having to carry a lot of heavy books around by opting for a digital version of the materials - for this you'll need a laptop to be able to use the PADI materials, so if you have one, bring it with you.

Scuba Instructor Internships Accommodation

We'll make sure that you're comfortable for your 8 month Koh Tao diving internship, arranging pleasant accommodation close to Simple Life Divers.

You'll get your own room with double bed, mosquito screens on the windows, electric fan to stay cool, television (with English channels), refrigerator and bathroom with hot water shower. You neighbors in the resort are all long term diving interns and western Divemaster and Instructors - the place is very safe and you'll have plenty of similar people to 'hang out' with.

Within a few minutes walk there are lots of Thai and Western restaurants, beach bars, internet cafes, shops and cash machines. Sairee Beach is just a few minutes walk from the accommodation, so you're perfectly located to enjoy a great time on Koh Tao.

PADI Scuba Instructor Testimonial: Katy

Name: Katy Anderson Young

From: UK

"Simple Life gave me the best summer ever! Being a PADI Divemaster at Simple Life Divers meant working on the coolest dive boat in Koh Tao, hanging out with like-minded people who wanted to take diving to the funnest limits possible, and then either chilling out with friends at night or partying til the sun came up at The Castle!

Met some of my best friends in the world working at Simple Life. And I too still have many photos up on my walls…can’t wait to come back and see everyone again!"

More info on PADI Scuba Instructor Internships in Koh Tao: