The PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) is the comprehensive training programme that prepares dive professionals to become PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors. The IDC combines academic development, confined water teaching practice, and open water evaluation skills to ensure candidates can deliver high-quality, standardised scuba training.
Course content includes learning and instructional theory, the PADI system of education, risk management and legal considerations, standards application, student control and positioning, and effective course organisation. You will develop classroom presentations, confined water teaching segments, and open water scenarios, while refining all core skills to demonstration quality. Dive theory workshops cover physics, physiology, equipment, decompression theory, and use of the Recreational Dive Planner.
The IDC is typically structured over 7–12 days when delivered as a full programme, or split into the Assistant Instructor (AI) course (approximately 4–5 days) followed by the Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) programme (approximately 4–5 days).
After completion, candidates attend the two-day PADI Instructor Examination (IE), where teaching ability, dive theory, standards knowledge, and in-water performance are independently assessed.
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