Commercial Training

There are four levels of training accredited by the Australian Diver Accreditation scheme (ADAS). These levels are specified by Australian Standards AS2815.1-2-3-4 and known as ADAS Part 1-4 respectively. ADAS specifies all course content, and to that end, all courses appear very similar. Each level of training takes one month to complete and the levels are progressive. You must complete a level 1 course before undertaking level 2, and you must undertake level 1 and 2 before undertaking level 3 training.

What does vary considerably between schools is the quality of instruction, the reality of work tasks, the equipment used and the professionalism of the school. Some ADAS schools use highly academically qualified instructors, others use highly experienced commercial divers. At Descend we believe your instructors should be both professional educators and highly experienced commercial divers.

Hint: Avoid schools where the instructors have no real commercial diving experience or if they gained their instructional experience via a short "train the trainer" course.

About ADAS

The Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme or ADAS was established in 1987 by the Australian Federal Government and is administered by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
The aims of ADAS are twofold:

• Firstly it aims to provide people who are required to carry out diving as part of their occupation with the means to have their competency measured and registered.
• Secondly, it aims to provide people and organisations that may need to utilise divers with a quality assurance that the person they engage has all the skills necessary to carry out the required tasks to the agreed standards of competency and safety.

To these ends ADAS accredits Occupational Diver Training establishments, and occupational divers, according to the Australian Standard " Training and Certification of Occupational Divers AS2815". AS2815 is based on the UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) standard for divers competency, which we recognised as the International benchmark for divers training. This therefore ensures a high quality National system of occupational diver training and accreditation across Australia. Additionally the Australian Standard, Occupational Diving ASNZ2299.1 , called up in regulations in a number of states, requires that divers should be trained to AS2815 standard and has a certificate to that effect. ADAS is the only occupational training and certification scheme in Australia and the ADAS certificate is recognised internationally.

On 1st April, 1998 the UK Heath and Safety executive (HSE) approved the ADAS qualifications under regulation 14(1) of diving at work 1997 as suitable for the purpose of the regulations 12(1)(a) under regulation 14(2) as an approved certificate for work in the UK. All Australian ADAS qualifications are recognised at the equivalent UK levels.

ADAS qualifications are also formally recognised in South Africa, Norway, and Canada and by the Association of Offshore Drilling Contractors and are accepted in most overseas countries where offshore Petroleum Production work is carried out.