An Argument for Industry Oversight
The Problem
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): The dive industry is self-regulating, and aside from standards organizations, such as ISO, CE, and ANSI that set "standards" for dive training, no organization currently exists to provide periodic quality assurance, both to the agencies and to the public, that individual professionals and operators meet and/or maintain standards. Further, all dive agencies themselves are allowed to self-regulate their own professionals, which is a conflict of public interest, and provides no real QA functionality.
Every dive agency maintains their own "standards" and "policies", yet to date, only one agency, out of the hundreds that exist in the world, requires its professionals to pass a periodic evaluation to maintain their active status. This means that for 99 percent of the dive industry, real quality-assurance currently doesn't exist. There is no true accountability to assure the public that all professionals active throughout the industry meet and maintain standards, and that their behaviors, practices, and procedures, with regards to their professional performance, align to those standards. The reality is, agencies left to govern themselves is a conflict of public interest, and the dive industry is in serious need of an independent body with the power to assure standards are met and maintained, to provide the public with real accountability they can access anytime, and that has the authority to administer corrective actions and training, and/or even revoke professional qualifications and status for professionals who fail to meet standards, refuse to, or have been found to violate them.
In all other professional industries, whereby inherent risk is present (such as with Aviation, Medicine, Law, etc.), a separation exists between schools and oversight. Independent bodies provide those industries quality assurance to standards with a focus on protecting the public, not protecting the professional, agency, or organization. A pilot doesn't answer to the schoolhouse they received their license through, they answer to the Aviation Administration of their nation. A doctor doesn't answer to the university they trained with, they answer to their State's medical board. Yet in the dive industry, agencies that certify professionals are the only ones with the power to revoke those certifications, and no one is checking up on their professionals to make sure they are still maintaining the same standards across time.
As the industry sits today, there exists no annual testing, no requirement for periodic evaluations, no database to track experience and progression, and unless an egregious violation occurs followed by public outcry, very few agencies ever get involved and take a real look at an individual, or take any real action against professionals for violating standards, reported or not.
Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) are perishable, and behavioral deviation happens naturally and undetected by the individual, yet while a professional's "active status" with the agency they are a member of must be renewed annually, certifications themselves are permanent and do not expire, and after a professional is certified, there is no regular follow-up to assure they are still maintaining standards.
Additionally, in some reported cases, any time a professional expressed a need for change, they have been met with retaliatory actions by their own agency(s), claiming they are not being "professional" or falsely accusing them of some form of misconduct.
Worse, agencies really only get involved after an incident has occurred. There's no "prevention" in the system, only "reaction", typically to the claim the professional "didn't follow standards", and absolving themselves of any legal risk or liability. This isn't "Quality Assurance", it's placing the organization and its image ahead of the public interest.
In truth, there's no real accountability, and no real publicly visible or accessible quality assurance functionality across the dive industry. There is no way for the public to truly know if one professional or operator actually does meet or exceed standards, and while behavioral deviation across time is a well-established fact, there currently exists no enforceable way to check on, evaluate, or re-align professionals with established standards. Dive agencies do not routinely assure their own professionals meet and maintain standards, and typically only ever get involved if a complaint is filed or an incident occurs. Further, few professionals voice their concerns or openly advocate for changes to the industry to fix these deficiencies, and part of the reason why is a fear of retaliation by their own agencies if they do.
PDC has advocated for years that the industry must do better. A real conflict of interest exists, and it is time for independently enforceable oversight in our industry, not only to assure we as professionals are placing the public before self-interests in an inherently dangerous activity we promote, but also to establish, maintain, and improve public trust in both the professional and the industry as a whole.
The Solution
To solve this issue, we have borrowed directly from Aviation in promoting an industry-wide Dive Standardization Program.
We advocate for the establishment of an industry-level independent body / organization that has the authority and power to maintain quality assurance functionality over all dive agencies and their active professional members and affiliates, that is responsible for maintaining its own professionals, specially trained as instructors able to administer evaluations, provide corrective training, and administrative actions officially recognized by the agencies, and that maintains a publicly accessible and referencable database of results for all to see.
This body/organization shall:
- Work with standards organizations and agencies alike to compile established industry standards, including core KSA's and PPT's.
- Maintain all current established minimum standards for public reference and use in the evaluation and certification process.
- Evaluate all professionals / operators periodically to assure standards are met and maintained.
- Maintain and publish a publicly viewable and searchable database of all agencies, and professionals / operators worldwide, including their last evaluation date, current status, and any decencies/actions.
- Issue compliance certifications to all agencies and professionals / operators who meet standards.
- Issue corrective actions, re-training, deficiency reports, warnings, or status removals for those who fail to meet standards, refuse, or are found in violation.
- Maintain a global staff of active certified Standardization Instructors (SI), and Program Evaluators (PE), assigned to areas of responsibility, to administer the Standardization Program
Dive Standardization Organization
DSO
The Organization maintains a headquarters office with full-time staff who are responsible for all operations and administrative functions of the organization. It maintains the Dive Standardization Program, uses established industry standards to produce evaluation criteria, monitors the administration of the program globally, trains and certifies SI's and PE's and assigns them to AoR's within a Region, produces industry reports, certifications, and all other administrative actions, and maintains a publicly accessible database of all professionals / operators worldwide.
Database
The organization maintains a public, searchable database of all agencies, and their active members and affiliate operators, worldwide, that anyone can openly search and view. The database shall be easily searchable and provide the individual professional / operator's name, agency(s) affiliation, agency number(s), date of last evaluation, status, and any filed reports.
Qualified Professionals
The organization will train and certify instructors from any agency who meets minimum qualifications as Standardization Instructors (SI's), and at a higher level, Program Evaluators (PE's), who will be assigned to Regions and an Area of Responsibility (AoR) within their region, to carry out and administer the Standardization Program.
Professional Assessments
Ensuring Dive Professionals maintain the Standards
All Dive Professionals, from Divemasters to Instructors of all levels, Public Safety divers, and even Occupational Divers, should be assessed annually to assure their KSA's and PPT's remain in-line with established standards for their level.
Professional Assessments may be scheduled in advance or administered as a "No Notice" evaluation. Assessments start with consultations to review standards and establish expectations for the process, along with planning and scheduling of events. Once the assessment begins, a records review is conducted to evaluate training history, experience, and progression. A written exam is given, followed by an oral interview, to assess depth of knowledge and understanding. This will be followed by a blind practical assessment. Data gathered from these are used to identify KSA gaps, skill degradation, and/or behavioral deviations from organizational, industry, and/or agency standards, or PPT's.
Once the assessment is completed, any retraining necessary will be administered with the intent to reinforce current standards, and improve KSA and PPT development through instruction and mentorship.
Professionals completing their assessment with a satisfactory rating will be certified as fit for continued diving operations in their professional capacity.
Professional Assessments can be given on an individual or group basis, or included within the scope of Organizational Evaluations.
Annual Proficiency Assessment and Readiness Test (APART)
For Dive Professionals who must maintain a Higher standard
For Dive Professionals who belong to organizations that demand fitness for duty (such as PDC, or Public Safety Divers, divers who work for government organizations, or other organizations with established fitness requirements), or individuals who desire to maintain a higher standard, the Annual Proficiency Assessment and Readiness Testing program will assure they are fit for duty, on track with their progression requirements, and meet the standards.
APART's are an integrated part of a formal Dive Training Program (DTP), which falls under the Dive Standardization Program (DSP), and ensures quality and standards are maintained, behavioral deviation is prevented, and an individual's professional and developmental progression is continued.
The APART is a multi-part exam, given within a 60-day window leading up to the diver's birth month, and consisting of:
- A medical check-up,
- A records review,
- A written standards exam,
- An oral evaluation,
- A practical skills evaluation,
- A swim test, and
- A Physical Fitness Assessment.
Professionals completing their APART with a satisfactory rating will be certified as fit for continued diving operations in their professional capacity.
APART's can be given on an individual or group basis, or included within the scope of Organizational Evaluations.
Organizational Evaluations
Providing Quality Assurance across our Industry
Formal evaluations of organizations assures their compliance with established industry standards, and their willingness to meet the needs of public quality assurance requirements. These evaluations look at training programs, member status', reports, and their own QA program (if any) to track alignment with industry standards, progress toward correcting an deficiencies, corrective actions (if any), etc. The goal is to work cooperatively to help the organization meet or exceed standards, address any concerns or issues, and improve or maintain public trust that the organization has the public's best interest as their prime objective.
Pinnacle Diving Company has 20 years of experience in Program Standardization, Industrial Compliance, Development and Evaluations, Operations and Performance Assessments, and more, and we are capable of performing annual assessments to ensure professional-level divers, teams, programs, and/or organizations, meet and maintain standards.