PADI International have informed us that anything between 4,000 and 6,000 people from the UK are completing the PADI Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) course each month, so if you take an average of 5,000 people, times that by 12 and then take into consideration that there is about a 90% drop-off from Discover Scuba Diving to Open Water, you’re still left with about 6,000 people from the UK who take up the Sport every year and who are looking to buy new kit and take their first diving holidays.
We would love PADI to release the stats for all certifications to see what percentage of these go on to become Instructors. Another stat we have heard is that after the IDC, the typical Instructor will work for a year but after 18 months 70-80% of those new instructors will no longer be a member of PADI. This confirms what we know from seeing IDCs every month and seeing lots of instructors stat working but very very few instructors stay teaching for year after year. Apart from the local divemasters and Instructors in a typical dive resort you will be hard pressed to find Instructors that have been teaching for 4 years or more.