Dive O'Clock PRO
Dive O'Clock PRO is the fastest-growing website for dive professional courses around the world. Dive O'Clock PRO strives to help people finding divemaster and dive instructor courses and internships that match their needs and wishes. For dive instructors and dive centers Dive O'Clock PRO offers various services to make sure their pro courses are in the spotlight.
Why we promote dive professional courses around the world
There are hundreds of locations to become a dive instructor around the world, the locations for a divemaster course are pretty much endless.
The process of selecting the right location and dive instructor for your divemaster or dive instructor course can be long and complicated. The dive professionals courses are intensive, long-lasting in general and often they are quite expensive as well. It is important to make the right decision, especially if you are going to quit your job for this life changing course.
There are many factors you can (or should) take in consideration when you are thinking of becoming a dive professional, paid or maybe even in exchange for work. Continue reading here PADI IDC – The Ultimate Guide to Become a Dive Instructor.
Why help dive centers and aspiring dive professionals
Especially in Facebook groups focusing on dive jobs and dive professionals people ask almost daily recommendations on where to go PRO.
Questions like: "Where should I do my divemaster course?" or "Can you recommend a good location for my PADI IDC (dive instructor course)" are filled with comments from dive centers promoting their offers. On the other hand these dive centers and PADI Course Directors / SSI Instructor Trainers also share their PRO course offers on a daily basis, hoping to attract aspiring dive professionals to their location.
This is more time consuming for both parties rather than being really efficient.
Because those Facebook groups are meant for dive jobs rather than dive training, harsh reactions from people who are already certified as a dive professional, looking for a dive job, are not uncommon. Some groups have even blocked promoting dive professional courses, or asking recommendations about it, as that is simply not what the group is for.
Therefore we created a Facebook group focusing on dive professional training rather than dive jobs. In this group people can find exclusive and last minute dive professional course deals, access to divemaster and dive instructor training, tips, articles and expertise! For those involved or interested in becoming a recreational dive professional, this is a place to share knowledge, experience and ideas.
Join our Facebook group: Aspiring Dive Professionals with thousands of members.
How we help aspiring dive professionals
People might recommend the divemaster or dive instructor course they did, but they have done this course only once (hopefully). Diving centers and Course Directors / Instructor Trainers (teacher) will try to sell you their course, and that is their business. How to figure out what is the best option for you? Other than telling you what the best place is to go pro, let us help you with narrowing-down the search for the best divemaster or dive instructor course for you!
Fueled by those common questions, the things to consider when selecting a pro course and above all a lot of personal experience - this service was born. What started as an Excel file to download with all the data provided by dive centers and dive professionals quickly grew into a database with search engine and various articles helping and guiding aspiring dive professionals towards that life changing decision and career change. Find those articles in our blog section.
If you ask what is the most important factor when selecting a dive course, the most common and right answer is the dive instructor. It is more about the person teaching you rather than the facilities, the course structure (which is pretty much fixed anyway), the dive conditions or the price. With our service we made the first phase of this process a lot easier. We help aspiring dive professionals connecting with dive instructors. Of course you can check their experience levels and expertise of those people potentially teaching you on our website, but we advice you to email at least three 'teachers' for further details, see if there is a click, etc.
How we help dive centers
As mentioned above there countless locations to go PRO. How do you stand out from the crowd? While being there where people look for inspiration and information, is one - you probably prefer to be visible where people look specifically for dive professional courses rather than dive courses or dive jobs in general.
This is one of the reasons why we don't promote regular dive courses like the PADI Open Water, Advanced or Rescue diver course. As we focus only on the professional dive courses we do have the side-effect and success stories of people finding a high-professional dive center to 'get their PADI' through our website. Of course there are many features that are dive location related rather than dive course specific, like fun diving conditions and if there are marine conservation projects to participate in at the dive center.
As our platform was gaining more and more users we started sharing those dive professional courses on various social media channels as well, creating an extra service while being even more visible for aspiring dive professionals. While some of the bigger dive centers have their own social media marketeers, the smaller dive centers often don't have that privilege and prefer to / need to focus on mainly on the day-to-day dive operations rather than social media, let along the knowledge that is needed for being successful in the fast growing and evolving online marketing landscape.
While Dive O'Clock PRO was originally part of the Dive O'Clock website its continuing growth created the need for a separate website and social media channels, find the links below. Also the time Marlies was spending on connecting the two parties became more consuming than originally was intended - drive by motivation and experience in this field. She started to ask for a small monthly fee to be able to do more for the dive centers that need it or realize the return on investment is a lot higher than paying for advertising or commission. The success partly depends on what you offer, so there is no guarantee, but make sure to check the success stories and reviews of our service.
Part of Dive O'Clock
“It’s dive O'Clock somewhere!”
Dive O'Clock is an online business for SCUBA diving and snorkeling enthusiasts where people can compare different dive destinations, try SCUBA quizzes and learn about marine life species and dive education with a strong focus on conservation. Dive O'Clock PRO was originally part of the Dive O'Clock. Dive O'Clock's vision is to spread the love for the underwater world in order to protect it. Visit Dive O'Clock.
About the Founder
The founder of Dive O'Clock is Marlies Wolters, MBA, a passionate and experienced PADI IDC Staff instructor with degrees in leisure management (marketing communication in recreational diving) and international business, devoted to support and promote sustainability and conserving our oceans.
Explore some of the dive locations Marlies has been or check the about page on Dive O'Clock. Being a dive professional for over 10 years, she works online and on-sight with dive centers all around the world. If you are interested in getting more out of your website, social media or dive center in general, simply contact Marlies for a chat.
At the moment she is not teaching SCUBA diving or working for one specific dive center - her up-to-date knowledge and objective help is fueled by experience and an incredible passion for marine life and SCUBA diving. Dive professionals are guardians of the oceans and we need more of those!
Of course you can also find her on Linkedin or use the contact page to get in touch.
