SSI Specialty Instructor: Your Profile

Specialty Instructor Courses Online

Specialty Instructor courses are an often underestimated part of the training of diving instructors. For some, specialty courses are considered a pure “card sale”, some combine as many specialties as possible in as few dives as possible, and some believe that “vacation divers” don’t need that anyway. In fact, specialties can be a really nice way for divers to choose their individual training path, learn exactly what interests them most in small steps – and instructors have a lot of variety in their daily work instead of always the same routine.

This page describes,

why it makes sense to teach specialty courses,
how to become a Specialty Instructor,
and above all:
how my Specialty Instructor seminars work and why I structured them this way.

Dive to 30m for 20 minutes with air, planned in Subsurface

Why teach specialty courses?

Any young diving instructor who has spent a summer teaching only OWD courses and introductory dives knows how much they appreciate being out and about with more experienced divers. But even they can still learn something – that’s what specialty courses are for.
The OWD is the beginning, not the end of diving education. If we really want to have independent divers, real buddies, then the training must not stop at the OWD. With specialties, you can create very individual training paths, always oriented to the interests of each individual diver. And as diving instructors, we want to pass on what we are particularly good at. And that is always more than just the OWD.
Specialty courses are small courses on very specific topics that can often be carried out appropriately with two dives. This makes the courses attractive for divers who only dive occasionally on vacation. They too can take a small piece of further education with them on every vacation.
And there are pure theory specialties that can also be carried out when diving is not possible, often online as well.

As a Specialty Instructor, you can create your own professional profile. The selection of courses is enormous, and you don’t have to be able to teach them all. It is better to choose exactly the things that interest you the most and in which you have experience. If you are interested in marine biology, you can teach the Ecology specialties – as a theory course, or with additional dives. Anyone who dives technically themselves will be happy to train Deep and Decompression Diving in order to introduce divers to the challenges of depth. Anyone who is passionate about photography themselves may be happy to help others get good pictures without plowing up the reef. The possibilities are as diverse as the people who dive.

So a specialty is more than just an “upselling” to the Open Water course. Every specialty has:

its own target group,
a meaningful place in diving education,
specific organizational requirements,
and often real risks that need to be addressed properly.

A good Specialty Instructor cannot only reproduce content, but:

structure a course meaningfully,
adapt it to the environment, dive center and participants,
and make decisions that are pedagogically and safety-relevant.

How do you become a Specialty Instructor?

There are three ways to become a Specialty Instructor:

You can prove sufficient experience
You do a co-teaching with a colleague who can already teach this specialty
You attend a seminar with an Instructor Trainer – I offer this option here

Formally, the path is clearly defined:
You will receive the Specialty Instructor Kit, attend a Specialty Instructor Seminar and then be registered as a Specialty Instructor.

In practice, however, there are major differences in

how well you can really teach afterwards,
how safe you feel,
and whether you actually offer the course later or never touch it again.

This is exactly where my work comes in.

If you attend a seminar, you don’t suddenly have to teach the course – you prepare for it in peace and quiet, and receive professional support.

How my Specialty Instructor seminars are structured

My Specialty Instructor Seminars are deliberately not just “going through the kit”. The kit is part of it – but it’s not the core.

The core is the question:

How can this specialty be turned into a functioning course that you can realistically teach?

1. Introductory video

You will receive an introductory video at the beginning.

The first video is generally about how to get the SSI information about the course – including standards, but also:

the classification of the specialty,
how to make them really cool,
real pitfalls from practice,
and the question of where instructors often fail, even though they are formally correctly trained.

2. Homework: Thinking instead of consuming

Then you get a concrete task:

You come up with your own course.
Not perfect, not beautiful – but realistic.

Target group, framework, procedure, materials:
Everything can be rough. It is important that you start making your own decisions.

3. Submission of a course plan

You submit this draft before the live webinar.
Not for evaluation in the classical sense, but as a basis for work.

This is how the live webinar becomes:

more personal,
more concrete,
and much more helpful than general frontal formats.

4. Live webinar

The live webinar is about:

Feedback on typical problems,
structural questions,
adaptations to real conditions,
and about the transfer of theory into teaching practice.

The webinars are topic-specific and take place regularly on fixed dates.

Next course dates

Is that possible online?

We can easily prepare almost all specialties in an online seminar. This is always possible if the specialty does not contain any completely new skills, but only deepens parts of the basic training. This is not about practicing specific skills – you can already do that – but about structuring and organizing the course.
For some specialties you have to have a brevet for this area yourself – Sidemount, Independent Diving, Scooter – whenever new equipment is involved, there needs to be proof that you yourself are well trained in it. For these courses, I will usually want to see a video recording of how you demonstrate the new skills – or we can even go into the water together.

Why I offer these seminars this way

I work as an Instructor Trainer from practical experience. I often see how specialty courses are carried out without much preparation, sometimes completely spontaneously, and I keep experiencing diving instructors who don’t really know what they are supposed to do. In order for the courses to be really fun and meaningful, a little preparation is needed – simply following cue cards is not enough.

My Specialty Instructor seminars are designed to:

give you security,
take work off your hands,
and help you offer courses that you can stand behind professionally.

No more.
But no less either.

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