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LIA (Mermaid's CDC - Dive Career Development Center) - Mission Statement

Learn-in-Asia is the official Scuba Diving Internship website for Mermaids Scuba Dive Center based in Jomtien, Pattaya, Thailand. Since the year 1991 Mermaids CDC (Career Development Center) has been offering superb dive instruction but since 1999/2000 we have been offering first class dive training to recreational and professional divers within all-inclusive internship programs. Your professional dive career is of the utmost importance to Mermaids. We strive to, and achieve scuba dive programs that can ONLY be offered by us in Thailand as a combination to ensure that you are the most employable dive professional and gain dive jobs easily on completion of the programs. Dive courses that we offer and reasons that we are unique are:

• Mermaids is the first and ONLY PADI CDC (career Development Center) between Bangkok and Cambodia out of over 50 dive centers - this is the highest PADI dive center achievement possible. (you can check this by going to PADI.com

• Mermaid's as an active PADI Career Development Center operates healthy MSDT and PADI STAFF - Master Instructor programs allowing you to reach any level diver you require.

• Mermaid's was guided by the one time youngest PADI Course Director Stephen Blumenthal - in early 2005 Russell Martin our chief instructor became Mermaid's 2nd PADI Course Director - On Steve's passing Russell has taken the helm with a 2nd Course Director assisting on the IDC's.

• Mermaids is the ONLY dive facility from Bangkok to Cambodia to offer the IAHD Handicapped scuba diver program for instructors and divers - with facilities completely renovated for handicapped persons. Mermaid's works with an active wheel chair using instructor (Mark became an instructor in 2004 within Mermaid's CDC Internship) building on the IAHD program allowing a very precise and accurate perspective on the sensitivities and special requirements of a handicapped diver. Mark, takes the experience over and above the perceived "simulation" experience.

• Mermaids is the ONLY dive center to offer PSAI Self-Sufficiency Course and PADI/PSAI Full face Mask (FFM Specialty outline) training in ASIA.

• Mermaids is the ONLY dive center in ASIA to offer ASSET dry diver training programs.

• Mermaids was first National Geographic Diver center in Pattaya, by over a year, one of the first 3 in Thailand - again another high dive center status offered through PADI to dive centers that make the grade. Again - this can instantly be checked on the PADI website.

• Mermaids is the ONLY dive career development center to care enough about your dive employment to place as much emphasis on this as any other part of the program. Mermaids secured a partnership with Divers-jobs allowing all Mermaids divers exclusive access to dive jobs not offered to other divers. This is the strongest scuba diving job placement service available. Your dive career matters to us.

• Mermaids is the ONLY dive training facility in Pattaya to have our own in-house Hydrostatic and Visual Tank Testing (including the new Visual Plus Electronic Testing Equipment) - this technology compliments the technical courses offered!

• Mermaids is the ONLY Pattaya dive center to privately own and operate 4 dive boats daily. These boats are ONLY for Mermaid's divers - we do not let freelancers pile on causing logistical extensions to the dive day unnecessarily.

All of the above is dedication to your personal progression as a PADI dive professional.

How do WE and the above make you more employable within the dive industry? - At any one time in the world there are many "PADI dive instructors" receiving their rewards for hard work and effort and achieving their professional diver status. Due to this fact you need something a little special to be more dive employable than the next guy and gal instructor. Admittedly a lot of employability comes down to professionalism, presentation and your attitude in general but also and importantly your dive credentials - this is where we assist.

At the time of writing this (09:33 Thai Time - Tuesday 28th June 2005 - though this site is updated daily) - there are ONLY two dive shops in Thailand that are able to offer the www.iahd.org (International Association of Disabled Divers) certifications. We are an instructor training center. - Imagine that you and another recently passed PADI instructor approach a dive employer - what can you both offer them? You can both teach diving up to DM. You can both cover divemaster responsibilities etc. However, if this dive shop employs you then they now as a dive company can hang a new sign in the window and you have brought a new service and skill to that center for them to be able to market! They can now offer a dive program that they could not before! FACT! I am sure that you see where I am coming from. - We ensure that you are different from the rest. - The IAHD program is JUST ONE example of why we are different. Imagine if you had the ASSET program under your belt along with the FFM/Self-sufficiency diver course... All of our instructors and dive masters receive specialties included as standard within the package.

We have an excellent reputation within the dive industry for producing 1st class and highly employable divemasters, instructors and "dry side" dive technicians and do everything within our means to maintain and build upon this.

For Scuba Diving vacations - Why would you need LIA? - Good question but not one that is hard to answer. So many people come to Thailand, Asia for a short holiday or for an extended period for a scuba diving holiday or an internship / traineeship program for example. You can search on the net all day, every day. You may find web sites with lovely flashy graphics and beautiful JAVA script pictures and still be given the same answers about dive training facilities, boats, equipment etc but what does that really tell you? It NEVER guarantees that you have safe air, the boat is sea worthy, that the equipment is maintained or even if the instructors can swim! I physically have a check list and certain criteria that need to be met for a dive shop / center or TEFL English school is to be allowed to affiliate with LIA. To answer your question in one sentence..."I do all of the physical investigation for you to ensure you of the very best service and facilities here allowing you just to enjoy the experience."

Where's the catch? I am hurt by that :-) - but a very sensible question. THERE IS NO CATCH. You as the customer pay NO MORE, you have my 24-hour support and in many cases you actually receive a discount on the rack price that you would have paid if you had gone direct. Contact me for more info.

PLEASE NOTE: The reason that TEFL English teaching courses are offered is as increasingly we are receiving couples where diving does not appeal to both parties. The TEFL teaching is NOT our business but we have affiliated with a local company in order to offer something for the "divers" partner. Coming through LIA offer you an automatic TEFL course discount also.

"A bad day scuba diving beats the hell out of your very best day in the office".

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