Course overview

Make the leap from leading dives to teaching them with the PADI Instructor Development Course in Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. Candidates rehearse teaching presentations in heated pools ashore and then refine open-water teaching on liveaboard trips to the outer reef around Flynn, Milln and Thetford Reefs before sitting the independent Instructor Examination. You finish the IDC ready to certify your own students and join the worldwide community of PADI professionals.

What you’ll learn

• Deliver knowledge-development, confined-water and open-water teaching presentations
• Apply the PADI system of education, standards and dive theory
• Demonstrate, evaluate and correct student diver skills to professional standard
• Manage diver risk and run training to dive-centre and reef-operator standards
• Brief, supervise and debrief students confidently in an outer-reef environment
• Prepare fully for the independent PADI Instructor Examination

Prerequisites

• Minimum age 18
• PADI Divemaster or a qualifying leadership rating from another recognised agency
• Certified diver for at least 6 months
• 60 logged dives to begin the IDC and 100 logged dives to sit the Instructor Examination
• Emergency First Response Instructor rating (can be completed alongside)
• Diver medical clearance signed by a physician

What's included · What's not

Probability of sightings · month-by-month

What you're likely to see each month, based on historic operator logs.

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   Teaching foundations

   Orientation to the PADI system of education and your first classroom knowledge-development presentations.
2. Day2
   Confined-water workshops

   Practise demonstrating and teaching core skills in the heated training pool with unlimited practice time.
3. Day3
   Outer-reef teaching

   Join a liveaboard trip to deliver open-water teaching presentations and skill circuits at outer reef sites under evaluation.
4. Day4
   Standards and risk management

   Work through dive standards, risk management, marketing and the business of running reef training.
5. Day5
   Theory and rescue assessment

   Sit dive-theory exams and complete the rescue assessment to IDC standard, plus EFR Instructor training.
6. Day6
   IE preparation

   Mock exams, presentation polishing and a full briefing for the independent Instructor Examination.

Verified through iDive

Every partner school in the iDive network is vetted on safety, instructor credentials, equipment standards and student feedback. Talk to a iDive dive pro on WhatsApp for current availability and reviews specific to Cairns.

Frequently asked questions