www.specialty-instructor.com offers a new dimension in the training of professional diving instructors. It is part of a three-webpage project. This page is meant to train diving instructors in specialties relating to exciting subjects. The second page is www.specialty-courses.com and offers similar services to divers, but in a way that guarantees contact with you – the professional diving instructor. Finally the web page www.scuba-logistics.com gives diving instructors a dedicated shop, in which they can find items such as course books and training aids that are normally hard to come by. The prices in this shop allow you an attractive margin on products that are sold to your students.

There are two types of Specialty Instructor Training Courses offered on this webpage. Full-online courses allow you to start and end the course via the internet. You do not have to go anywhere to get certified. Completing the online training segment is enough to qualify for your Specialty Instructor rating. For these courses you have to be PADI Assistant Instructor or have a higher rating. There is no need to have certified 25 divers, nor is it necessary that you made dives in the specialty. These specialties are not available in a consumer version – we want divers to have face-time with students.

The other type of courses offered is Hybrid courses. The academic part of these courses is done online. After completing the online segment, instructors have to select one of the qualified Course Directors proposed on the course pages. The practical part of the course will start with verification that the level of knowledge achieved during the online sessions is adequate. The Course Director will then proceed with the practical segments of the course. This allows you to get a lot of training done without spending a lot of time away from your home and work. The OWSI rating is required for certification, but Assistant Instructors can already take the course. There is no need to have certified 25 divers, but if diving is part of the course, certification will require an experience of 10 dives in the specialty field.

For Hybrid courses there is a consumer version available. www.specialty-courses.com has the same basic set-up as this internet page. Divers can do the academic part of their training online and then address themselves to an instructor to complete the practical part of the course. This can be you. After completing the Specialty Instructor course, you are invited to enter your contact information on specialty-courses.com. This way, potential clients are directed to you. These are most probably clients with whom you would normally not have gotten in contact. Developing a good relationship with the clients during the course can allow you to also help them with other educational, equipment or travel desires.

Internet based training attracts a specific group of clients. These are clients that expect a complete internet based response to all questions they may have. They are willing to come to “life training”, but want all their questions answered at their convenience – in the internet. For this reason there are some requirements before we start advertising your status on www.specialty-courses.com. The key requirement is that you must have an internet page on which you give details on the course availability and the price for the complete course (including theory) as well as the price for students who have completed the academic part online. This page must also link back to specialty-courses.com. The internet page may be your own, or from the dive center or resort you work for.

For some of the courses, books are recommended (never required). Other courses require some special training aids or equipment. In order to help instructors to find tools for their courses that are normally hard to find, www.scuba-logistics.com was created as a third webpage. This internet-shop is only for diving instructors. It sells items that only diving instructors need and items that diving instructors can sell to the students in their courses.

The interval between dates on which you teach the same specialty may be longer. This is the main reason why you maintain access to www.specialty-instructor.com after you finished your course. You can visit the course pages again any time you like to refresh your memory before teaching the course again after it has been a while. Access is available for you as long as this internet page exists.