Drop out rates for Uni Club Ocean Divers

[garethwoodruff]

Hi,

I was just wondering for some information for those of you who are involved in teaching Ocean Diver to students through Uni clubs, if you have any idea of how many drop out in the first year and also go on to higher grades.

The local Uni club has folded and my BSAC Branch is going to be doing some student training and I was interested in how many we can expect to keep for 3 years. How do you encourage those on a very limited (except beer obviously) budget to go on dive trips? do you get a lot of warm water divers crossover as part of this process?

Thanks,

G

[littleH]

We had a rather high turn over untill we started including them in everything and putting on stuff like flare demos and socials.

There can be a high turn over but you do have to keep emphasising why they have to turn up etc. But if they do drop out don't forget that unless they ask for a refund that you get their club subs etc.

Many of the girlies who are real girlies and want to learn to dive so thy can look like charlies angels will drop out when they realise how completley undignified it can be at times.

In general we kept 2-3 each year, until the last year and i think they've managed to keep about 7, many will not turn up much in their final year as there's too much course work, and a few will stay on after uni.

One of the biggest drop out factors is that untill you know what you're doing it's pretty serious stuff and all students want to do is lark about and have a laugh. We used to have a fair bit of trouble getting them ready fior slack, so the DO told them slack was 30 mins before it really was and then we got it.

I'd say it's worth taking them on - we were a uni club run by students who didn't give much time to the club but if you're a club that'll take on students i recon you'll have a much better retention rate

H

[Reikimaster]

We (Reading Uni BSAC) trained 10-12 OD's and 7-8 SD's last year so it would appear we had a good retention from previous years to get them upto SD training but we will have to see for next year.

My personal view is push the crossover from PADI AOW and get them on the SD course.

[jamesp]

Retention? The keenest divers I saw were all third years when they started diving,(3 girls). They made sd and finished uni!

In general, the students seem to be keen on the idea of diving, just less keen on the practice. Instructors have organised dives, weekend and mid week, then had students not bother turning up!

Warm water crossovers train for the cross over, then realise how far behind the rest are and drop out. Getting a core dive group going is VERY difficult

[zepp]

Originally Posted by jamesp

Getting a core dive group going is VERY difficult

I think most clubs have the same problem. the club I am in (SAA) has over one hundred members, in the last 6mths, only 8 of these haved done any dives, with only 3 done more than 10 !!!! Oh!, and one member has done over 80 since Feb...........ME

[garethwoodruff]

Thanks for the advice guys,

Our club will be in the lucky position of being a regular club and at the same time having students along as well, so hopefully it will be beneficial to all.

What is the general standard of PADI Open Waters / AOW that join and do they want to do sports diver or just go diving?

Thanks,

G

[littleH]

Originally Posted by garethwoodruff

What is the general standard of PADI Open Waters / AOW that join and do they want to do sports diver or just go diving?

Thanks,

G

They join with the big I AM and spouting off about how good they are and where they learnt to dive and then suddenly realise how little they really know. This is the point where some drop out and others, who really want to dive, stay on. I think they just want to dive so the quicker you get them crossed over and into our nice refreshing waters and dry bag trained (you could charge extra!! ) they'll either stay or drop out as they can't see far enough.

Students are a rather fickle bunch (i was there for 5 years) if it's not fashionab;e they don't want it - oh and have fun getting the girls to put weight belts round their waist - they all go for hips cos that's the fashion!!

good luck with it, they are a great laugh, and it's really good fun when you're all away together diving

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by littleH

They join with the big I AM and spouting off about how good they are and where they learnt to dive and then suddenly realise how little they really know. This is the point where some drop out and others, who really want to dive, stay on. I think they just want to dive so the quicker you get them crossed over and into our nice refreshing waters and dry bag trained (you could charge extra!! ) they'll either stay or drop out as they can't see far enough.

Not seen evidence of this problem. Most realise there is a big difference with uk diving and are happy knowing that they can sink, swim, and surface without panicing. There was the one though who had done 50+M on a single tank with a PADI instructor in Oz, which was deeper than most of the instructors had dived at the time. But she realised that this was stupid, with hind sight!

Originally Posted by littleh

Students are a rather fickle bunch (i was there for 5 years) if it's not fashionab;e they don't want it - oh and have fun getting the girls to put weight belts round their waist - they all go for hips cos that's the fashion!!

good luck with it, they are a great laugh, and it's really good fun when you're all away together diving

For pool usei used to link a pair of ankle weights and use them as a weight belt on some of the girls!!!!!

[Dr Stevil]

As a general rule I found:

30-35 new trainees begin the DTP
15-20 make it through the pool and theory before losing interest
10-15 manage to get an open water dive (usually Lake district in winter)
and in a good year you'll get 5 or 6 who'll get to the point of beginning SD training.

Scuba has a lot of competition for student time & money resources, beer and clubbing being very, very high on their list of priorities.

[garethwoodruff]

Well we've gone through try dive hell and got ourselves some students to teach....

The Uni at Stafford offered 10 subsidised places to join our club and we've got 8 Ocean Diver trainees and 2 Padi OW, which is great.

First lecture last night, introduction to BSAC, done as a double act between me and our DO. Seemed to go pretty well, seem like a nice friendly lot, even got one whose nickname is bungle and a couple have cars which should help with the logisitics of transport (must remember to see if we can borrow minibuses).

So how is the uni club new intake going for other clubs and what sort of timescale do you go for before getting them into open water?

Cheers,

Gareth.