Julia Barr , Chris Barr , Emily Griffiths , James Greenhalgh , Miraca Walker
Don ’ t you have any training going on ?
We have done some online training , such as defibrillator familiarisation , as well as completing all the theory parts for our Sports Diver trainees , but demand for training has not been high . We have five Sports Diver trainees , nine Dive Leader trainees , two Advanced Diver trainees and one member is working towards First Class Diver .
Why no Ocean Diver trainees ... is that Covid-related ?
Yes , we would normally take on around four to eight Ocean Diver trainees after our AGM in October and set the new Training Officer to work . We have 10 sets of kit for training and loaning out to new members to help them into the sport . We see this as very important to bring in new faces to the club and to keep the instructor skills live and up to date . But we don ’ t really see pool training as viable at the moment [ interview took place in December 2020 ] due to the amount of close contact required . So we have put all try dives on hold . Virtually all our Ocean Diver and Sports Diver training is in-house , but as our pool is shut for maintenance and given the challenges of on-boarding new members during Covid , we have paused Ocean Diver training for the moment .
So Dive Leader trainees are your largest group . How do you plan to get them qualified ?
Unlike our Ocean Diver training , Dive Leader and Advanced Diver training often includes regional and sharing with other local clubs . Some of the Dive Leader trainees are on the home straight and are just clocking up their experience dives . The training for the remainder will be delivered through a mix of in-house and regional training events , when they resume .
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