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International Marine Contractors Association

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Professional Diver Training

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International Marine Contractors Association

WORLD WIDE INTERNATIONAL DIVER TRAINING AT PROFESSIONAL DIVING CENTRE WITH AN INTERNATIONAL ADAS AUSTRALIAN CERTIFICATION

PDC TRAINING IS
RECOGNIZED BY; IMCA, The UK HSE, ADAS Australia, Canada, IDRF & The NDC for assessment

Before you select a school for training take time to visit our site and see what we offer in regards to training.

Professional Diving Centre is the only South African Commercial Diving School to issue the international ADAS Australian qualification and training. This ADAS certification is best for international student’s as well as South African students who want to work internationally. Divers only wanting to work in South Africa will not need ADAS and only get Department Of Labour .

Professional Diving Centre continues to offer its students first world diver training second to none, like the well know PDC 12 week 50 metre air diver combo course which includes approx. 100 training dives, 60 hours of bottom time, U/W tools & task training with 20 hours of practical decompression chamber operator time and an ADAS part 3 certification IMCA, HSE, IDRF recognized. The Dutch NDC recommend Professional Diving Centre to new student divers wanting to work in Dutch waters.

You will find it hard to get a school with unique training standards, training aids, plus the large range of offshore equipment and practical training work tasks, facilities and staff numbers to equal Professional Diving Centre anywhere in the world.

Professional Diving Centre is the only South African Commercial Diving School able to do trainee IMCA Air Supervisor, Bell Supervisor as well as IMCA Assistant Life Support Technician (A/LST) courses. The school has been a member of IMCA for the last 5 years.

The school also runs IMCA Diver Medic Technician courses and IMCA DMT refresher courses. PDC is the only South African Commercial Dive School to train saturation divers (closed bell divers) surface mixed gas divers, and 50m air divers using wet bell, surface decompression techniques, hot water suits and tools training and procedures and all of these courses are recognised by IMCA, HSE and other international diving bodies, which allow divers with a PDC qualification to work in the North Sea.

The school is based in the busiest harbour in South Africa, namely Durban Harbour.

The Professional Diving Centre prides itself on:

• Running as a successful commercial dive school since 1987 (namely 22 years)
• Being a IMCA training establishment member since 2005
• The high calibre of experienced full-time staff employed by the school
• The high standard of training
• The school normally only takes 12 students per course
• The fact that all student divers attending the classes of diving from Class IV, to Class III and Class II complete approximately 100 logged dives in 12 weeks
• The training dives which are divided into basic skills; tool skills; working tasks and competency assessments
• The student divers are assessed on a daily basis on practical skills and work ethic
• Certification is issued on the student's competence achieved and not on attendance
• The vast amount of commercial diving equipment it makes use of during training
• Its five air-conditioned classrooms with LCD projectors for Power Point presentations
• The 5 X twin-lock decompression chambers for students to gain the PDC required 20 hours of chamber operation (practical chamber operator experience)
• The school has transport and sufficient equipment set up in various dive sites
• The practical offshore diver working tasks for the students to complete under water
• There are only a few schools worldwide that can match this training given at Professional Diving Centre
• The pictures on the website gallery are all actual pictures of equipment belonging to the dive school
• Being solely involved in the training of commercial divers
• Mainly trains divers for the international offshore diving industry
• The school is based in the busiest harbour in the whole of South Africa
• The school is situated on the water in Durban harbour with 300 metres of quayside space
• The school has its own dedicated training jetty where depths range from 5 to 15 metres
• The school has its own diving medical centre and 24 hour recompression facility on 24 hour standby
• Students are assured of quality training by PDC staff.

See information on training in South Africa at PDC below.

Important information to consider when looking at training in South Africa

We were the first South African commercial diving school to train commercial divers to work offshore in the Oil and Gas industry to an international standard following AODC and IMCA offshore guidance procedures. Our equipment and procedures have always followed and continue to follow AODC & IMCA guidance for offshore diving.

We are also the only South African dive school to offer IMCA training in IMCA air and Bell Supervisor courses as well as IMCA A/LST. We run an IMCA diver medic course monthly as well. Our qualifications and certifications are accepted by HSE and IMCA as well as other IDRF countries world wide.

Many Diving Schools started up in South Africa after us with less than a quarter of the necessary equipment, practical procedures and training staff to ensure acceptable training standards and competence.At one stage there were 33 approved registered DOL commercial dive schools, we have seen many schools come and go even when charging less than half the course fees we do. Diving is a small industry and dive schools can make a name for themselves good or bad. We are proud of our good reputation in the diving industry and it is not based on our last international or local annual school audit but on years of dedication to correct commercial diver training. We train to the best offshore international diving practices and standards exceeding those of the SA DOL. This prepares student divers better for the international work place where almost all work when finished.

We also continue to train divers directly for many large international offshore diving companies as they are happy with our training and trained divers. The training courses offered by Professional Diving Centre have little in common with the other South African Commercial Diving Schools' training programs. If you are looking at working outside South Africa in the international world you should seriously consider Professional Diving Centre for your training and future career as at PDC we offer international students ADAS Australian Certification.

We have been in the diving business for 22 years and are dedicated to providing international quality commercial diver training with actual real working conditions and diver working tasks during the courses. There is no other South African Commercial Diving School and very few other international schools offering the student diver what we do, which includes our large up to date range of equipment, latest international diving procedures and practical diving skills. In fact very few commercial dive schools in the world offer what we do in training.

We have more staff and training equipment than any other South African dive school and most other international schools yet we still keep our course student numbers small and train less divers per course, as we believe correct instructor to student ratio is essential. We are also dedicated to not flooding a small work market with divers including the flood of sub standard trained divers by keeping small student numbers per course and ensuring a high standard of competence before issuing accepted HSE & IMCA qualification certificates. Students attending the COMBO course from ADAS Part 1/Class IV , ADAS Part2/III to ADAS Part3/Class II 50 metre IMCA offshore air diver do approximately 100 training & working dives in 12 weeks something unique worldwide at any dive school.

Due to the weak South African Currency THE RAND. Professional Diving Centre training courses may be a lot cheaper at times than elsewhere in the world. However the rand exchange rate changes daily and can be averaged out at approx. 7 rand to 1 US dollar or 12,5 rand to 1 UK pound.