User:NASE Worldwide/National Academy of Scuba Educators

National Academy of Scuba Educators

Who is NASE?

The National Academy of Scuba Educators is an organization that provides a methodology and materials to professional scuba educators to enable them to promote safe diving practices through education and training.

Mission

NASE will introduce the world to diving by providing superior, innovative training materials and methods. We will provide our members with a profitable business model that focuses on 3 key factors: safety, integrity and education while building confidence that ensures the enjoyment of diving for all participants.

Goals

NASE will be the educational company providing quality, convenience and value worldwide. NASE will focus on safety, building confidence and ensuring the enjoyment of diving for all participants by using defined proficiency standards NASE will provide members the cutting edge resources needed to profit through training divers and promote best business practices by our membership NASE will enforce a code of conduct for its members to ensure the highest possible adherence to the standards and procedures.

Training Philosophy

Competency

NASE diver training relies on an educational training model, which was developed to meet the goals of academy - competency based training.

Competency can be defined as:

A combination of related knowledge, skills and attitudes that leads to successful participation in scuba diving and is measured against well-accepted standards and is improved through training and experience. “What a person is required to do (performance), under what conditions it is to be done (conditions) and how well it is to be done (standards).”

“Skills can be done repeatedly, without undue stress, without significant error and under varying conditions”

Why use competency versus other methods?

Competency allows the educator to evaluate on an individual level. Each student builds his or her skill development at his or her own pace. This allows the instructor to use time more efficiently, by teaching only the necessary skills how ever long that takes.

How NASE Standards address competency

NASE allows its instructors to asses and remediation. By using bottom time as opposed to number of dives, instructors have the freedom to properly educate their students instead of “trying to fit” skills into an arbitrary number of dives.

Example: Open Water Diver course requires 100 minutes of bottom time to achieve certification. Certain skills must to evaluated in open water and they must meet the competency standards. The minimum amount of entries and exits are three. So conceivably a student who demonstrates above average competency with the required skills and is willing may compete the requirements for open water training in one day (see requirements for OWD).

Other diver in course who does not demonstrate above average competency during the first day of open water training may required addition in-water time on subsequent days. In this case the 100 minutes serves as a minimum and will require additional time based on instructors evaluation and required remediation.

Common Sense Standards for scuba training

NASE revised its training standards to a simple, no non-sense approach to training divers. These include the following: •	Eliminate the traditional hierarchy of continuing education, define proficiency and limits based on experience •	Eliminate useless skills and follow safety protocols in all levels of training (computers, limit ascents in OW and require safety stops on every dive. Safety is everything. •	Environmental education in each course •	Discourage any use of “platform training”. •	Flexible standards that allows certain modifications based on regional requirements.

Each of the major training agencies try to be different but all do the same thing – enable the training mediocre divers by setting the bar at “ agreed upon minimum standards” outlined by the RSTC.

Promote the fun in diving

Your job as a diving educator is to teach customers how to have fun diving, while learning how to dive safely and ….having fun!

Students assume you will teach them the essential knowledge and skills and they won’t get injured. But if that is all you do, have failed miserably. Students sign up for your classes because they want to have fun!

All too often scuba educators fall in to the mindset of the “Old School” way of training divers. Not that there is not some application of some of these principals in continuing education and leadership, the entry level diver course is not a place for those methods.

Fact is most divers who become certified do so just for the experience, not as a long-term hobby. They enjoy diving and usually participate while on vacation and go on guided dives. Many never plan on diving without a guide.

Their first experience with scuba must be enjoyable and safe. It needs to be fun!

Many instructors take the fun out of scuba primarily due to their own egos. This mentality is a reason diving is loosing out to other activities such as skiing.

How NASE approaches entry-level training

NASE training standards are focused on the basic skills required for this diver. It allows scuba educators to focus in on making the activity fun, not a drag.

The most important experience you can provide as an educator is to take your students diving. Let them experience swimming underwater, exploring your local dive site actually putting buoyancy control skills to use.

NASE Support it members Success

NASE has invested in many tools for its member to utilize to make a profit in diving. Other agencies believe they get the lions share of the profits or educating divers should be on a volunteer basis.

•	Modern Website that generates leads for it members •	Online delivery of training materials so members need not carry large inventories. •	Back office support to enable efficient processing of student credentials •	Marketing support with custom templates and email marketing •	Experience staff here to support your success

Partnership Programs for members

We have aligned with other diving industry components to bring our members access to equipment, travel and referral marketing.

The NASE Profit Partner Program

This referral system encourages your students to bring you additional business. This system is totally automated and NASE pays the referral fee directly to the student.

The NASE branded student materials

NASE has partnered by a major equipment manufacture to provide our members access to online sales of the necessary equipment. •	High commission •	NASE provide fulfillment

NASE Travel Desk

NASE has partnered with a dive travel specialist to offer group and individual travel opportunities. This co-op program allows individual instructors to “group” with other NASE members to expand travel opportunities.

Quality Assurance

NASE QA program unlike any other agency is transparent. Instead of sending your students questionnaires that create more confusion then quality we have your students rate you on our website. These are then available for any prospective student to read.



The National Academy of Scuba Educators (NASE) is a scuba diving training agency that provides divers of all levels modern materials and methods to safely enjoy diving. We are made up of dedicated dive professionals from all areas of diving including: Commercial divers, Military Divers, Resort Owners and Instructors.

NASE Worldwide is an Academy not an Association – according to Wikipedia – “is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia”

NASE Worldwide Scuba Training courses include: Open Water Diver and encompass all areas of diving including Extreme Scuba, Instructor, commercial scuba and Public Safety diving.

The NASE Worldwide system of diver education is the only training agency that requires "Competency Training" at all levels of diver development. By using competency in our training standards (similar to the requirements of professional commercial divers) we ensure each student is competent at each level of training. This is the only approach to teaching skills based learning as individuals learn at different rates to gain competence and self sufficiency.

Objective based learning model – our course content is designed to follow well establish teaching methodology, not arbitrary and random theory.

Transparency – All professional members are individually rated by the students they have taught and industry peers. This information is available to the general public. Members who do not meet our minimum standards will be terminated from the academy.

More importantly NASE Worldwide training courses are desgined to be fun.