Join PADI Club
Enjoy 20% OFF select PADI eLearning® programs, FREE ReActivate® online refresher, subscription to Scuba Diving magazine + so much more when you join PADI Club™.
Adventures
Book your fun dives, snorkelling trips and courses online with thousands of PADI Dive Centers.
New Destination eCards
Explore vibrant underwater worlds—from Addu Atoll’s fairy basslets to West Palm’s green Moray eel and Triton Bay’s colorful coral gardens!
Open Water Scuba Instructor
About the Course
If you like people, have a passion for scuba diving and want an extraordinary life - become a PADI Instructor. Teaching scuba diving allows you to share your love of the aquatic world with others while doing what you enjoy - being in, around and under water. PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors and PADI Assistant Instructors are the most sought-after dive professionals around the world because they've completed the program that sets the standard for training dive professionals. You earn a PADI Instructor rating through hard work and commitment, but you're rewarded with a job that lets you share incredible underwater adventures with others - transforming their lives for the better and enriching yours.
Are you ready to join the ranks of the dedicated professionals who teach the world's most progressive and popular scuba diver education programs? Then Go PROSM with an Instructor Development Course.
The Instructor Development Course (IDC) is made up of two parts - the Assistant Instructor (AI) course and the Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) program. Most dive professionals complete the entire IDC and go on to attend an Instructor Examination (IE), which is the final step to earn a PADI Instructor certification.
Successfully completing just the AI course results in a PADI Assistant Instructor qualification. When an AI is ready to progress, attending an OWSI program allows entry into an IE to earn a full PADI Instructor rating.
Dive professionals who hold an instructor rating with another diver training organization may be eligible to enroll directly in the OWSI program. This recognizes prior instructor training and provides a path to become a PADI Instructor.
A PADI Divemaster who has been a certified diver for six months may enroll in the PADI Instructor Development Course. You also need:
- At least 60 logged dives and 100 dives to attend an IE.
- Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care (CPR and First Aid) training within the past 24 months.
- Medical statement signed by a physician within the last 12 months.
You also need to be an Emergency First Response Instructor, but you can earn this rating during your instructor training.