Getting the balance right

Last year (Jan 2016) Safety Talk discussed the importance of balancing training versus experience. The primary thrust of that was that diving experience should be gained on the back of formal training.

Implicit in BSAC’s training ethos is that training should be delivered by trained instructors. However, the same underlying principles apply to instructors just as much as divers – experience as an instructor needs to be gained on a sound foundation of practical and, just as importantly, theoretical training.

The BSAC Instructor Training Scheme (ITS) provides a structured and progressive development programme at all levels from the Instructor Foundation Course (IFC) through to National Instructor (NI).

Teaching experience

Achieving any level of instructor training is the first step towards becoming an effective instructor and the ITS system does provide a clearly defined structure to instructor training. However, consolidating that training and building your experience requires putting that training into practice.

Not all newly trained instructors are confident in their new found skills and so working initially to teach those skills you are comfortable which helps build your experience and consequent confidence.

The beauty of BSAC training is there are always other instructors in the club to help support and share their own experiences. Once you have built confidence expanding your areas of interest and expertise will help ensure you maintain motivation and interest.

Diving experience

Instructor training prepares you to teach any skill you have and so by continuing to develop your personal diving skills this will help you to expand your repertoire of practical teaching.

Beyond diver training, BSAC offers a range of short courses leading to a variety of skills from Skill Development Courses through to technical diver training. Depending on the relative complexity of the skills training there are a variety of requirements for teaching on these courses ranging from any qualified instructor through to a formal supervised teaching process.

In particular where a new course is introduced such as the recently released Wreck Diving SDC, very detailed instructor resources are provided. The course itself aims to provide structured and consistent training for the students.

The instructor resources are particularly aimed at the less experienced instructor to ensure they have all the guidance they require to be able to confidently teach the course. That does not mean that experienced instructors can ignore the notes but should use them to ensure they cover the core syllabus while bringing their additional experience to bear for the benefit of their students.

Ongoing development

As with diving, continually expanding your experience, skills and training ensures there is always something new to maintain your interest. Teaching also provides that unique experience of the multitude of ways in which your students can continually surprise you!

Think SAFE – Dive SAFE

Jim Watson

BSAC Safety and Development manager

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