Starting wage for Commercial divers

[Andy the Coastie]

From a e:mail sent to me today

I am a corporate finance guy looking into new career options and commercial diving is one of the industries I might enjoy. Keep in mind this is with very little knowledge of it....which brings me here.

I contacted the underwater centre in Scotland and they claim to be the best in the biz, "we trained the Kursk Sat divers blah blah blah"

Here is a recent email I received from them:

Hi Chris,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

The employment for graduate divers is very high at the moment. Diving companies have been contacting us for students to work in the North Sea and trying to locate a student that hasn't already found work within the first
two weeks of leaving the centre is proving to be rather difficult.

The average pay for a newly qualified student working offshore is around
£270.00 per day.

If you have any further queries with this please do not hesitate to contact
me.

Kind Regards

Laura
Check out our website http://www.theunderwatercenter.com

The average pay for a newly qualified student working offshore is around
£270.00 per day.

Andy replies back

Chris.

Laura forgot to tell you thats CASH IN HAND,

No tax
No Ni
All meals and accom FREE with contract.
All air flights and travel FREE.

Oh dear.........

[Runaway987]

Im guessing its not like that huh?

[Brass Monkey]

Originally Posted by The Underwater Center

The employment for graduate divers is very high at the moment. Diving companies have been contacting us for students to work in the North Sea and trying to locate a student that hasn't already found work within the first
two weeks of leaving the centre is proving to be rather difficult.

This one just about choked me, waste of good beer n all. The divers I have met has had to do a couple of years working in shit jobs (hull scrubbing and the likes) in conditions that were less than safe (monkeys working above you dropping god knows what into the water) for shite money before ever getting near the North Sea. This situation may have changed but I doubt it very much. The fact that the top side work in the North Sea has dropped right off must have some affect on required diving operations. This line of bullshit sounds suspiciously like the line the RGIT (sea survival center) give guys wanting to work top side. "Ho yes you'll be working in a week bringing in stacks of cash".
Now just suppose you did get a start that paid that kind of money, after you had paid your tax etc. You could work two weeks on two weeks off scrubbing hand rails and handling pipe for the same kind of wage.

I fancy doing the course myself but would not expect to get offered any work unless I was there at the time they needed a little something doing. And for 270 quid a day they could kiss my arse.

Dave.