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Occupational diving is universally recognised as being a high hazard, high-risk activity.  As such, it is regulated in every developed country in the world.

In the few places where occupational diving is not formally regulated under national law (e.g. remote Russian and African offshore oil fields), it is generally subject to requirements to conform with industry codes of practice (e.g. the IMCA International Code of Practice for Offshore Diving – IMCA D 014).  Such codes are developed as part of contractor and operator due diligence and are imposed because the international community has an expectation that the organisations that create the risk will put appropriate measures in place to manage that risk.

A fundamental aspect of all these risk management arrangements is that occupational divers must be able to prove to the regulator, and/or to a prospective employer, that they have the knowledge, skills and abilities to undertake the diving and the underwater work required.

All around the world, such proof relies on being able to produce a credible certificate of competency awarded by one of the handful of reputable certification agencies.

ADAS is the world’s foremost international commercial / occupational diver certification agency.

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ADAS is a foundation member of the International Diving Regulators & Certification Forum (IDRCF – comprised of all the mainstream international certification schemes) and has formal mutual recognition arrangements with those and other countries and with appropriate industry peak bodies.  These agreements ensure that the ADAS licence to dive is recognised as equivalent to the IDRCF-member diving qualifications or to those that form the basis for the industry-based certification arrangements.

These agreements ensure that ADAS divers can operate in that country’s jurisdiction with their ADAS certificate or by crossover to the national certification.

But, as well as these formal, mainstream arrangements, ADAS qualifications have achieved recognition and acceptance throughout the world because of the Scheme’s leading international status, world class training standards and its mutual recognition arrangements with the other mainstream certification schemes.

An ADAS certification is truly a global licence to dive!

ADAS-certified personnel are employed around the world – in Africa, Antarctica, Canada, China, Russia, South America, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabian, the USA – the list goes on and ADAS divers are out there getting down and dirty. Divers have come to ADAS for training and certification from all round the globe – from Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Jamaica, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South America, Sweden, Turkey, the UAE, the USA, etc, etc.  As noted above, they work all around the world wherever high quality divers are needed.

In Australia, most divers are required by law to have an ADAS certificate before they can enter the occupational diving workforce.  ADAS certification provides the legally required entry qualification necessary to work in onshore construction diving, the offshore oil and gas industry and aquaculture diving in South Australia.

A few others, however (e.g. scientific divers, fish collectors, pearl and abalone divers), are not legally obliged to have an ADAS certification.

Why should these divers spend the time, money and effort to gain an ADAS qualification?  Below are some good reasons for you to think about.

Having an ADAS qualification:

  • Means that the whole of the occupational diving industry is open to you.  If you need or want to change direction, you have the basis to move to a different diving or diving-related career;
  • Provides a credible certificate of competency which is recognised, and provides entry to occupational diving, throughout the world;
  • Provides a structured career path which allows the diver to enter the industry at the bottom as a rookie and progress through all aspects of active diving up to and including mixed gas and closed bell operations.  It also provides an exit path for those who don’t want to, or can’t, continue getting wet through graduating to supervising other divers and/or managing diving projects, piloting an ROV or operating a hyperbaric facility in the clinical or tunnelling industries;
  • Provides recognition and reward for the academic aspects of the diver’s efforts with vocational qualifications that can be used to gain credit towards further vocational, tertiary or post-tertiary study;
  • For dive supervisors, is even more critical, as they assume substantial responsibility and liability when they take on their role, especially in the present litigious environment where civil claims are being brought every day before the courts. ADAS supervisor training and assessment is specifically designed to provide supervisors with the credible skills and knowledge with which to undertake their role, especially in the area of accident and emergency management, and equips them with the competencies necessary to minimise risks to their divers and themselves;
  • For an employer/contractor, goes a long way to providing a credible means of demonstrating compliance with their legal duty of care. Under the law, employers must provide employees with any instruction and training necessary to ensure their health and safety. ADAS operations, training and assessment are externally validated and quality controlled and, together with the ADAS best practice standards, are specifically developed to provide exactly this. Employers who are aware and concerned about their duties and responsibilities under the law will always, therefore, employ ADAS-certified divers;
  • Provides for 3rd party employers who also have a duty of care under the law (e.g. a government water board letting a contract to a diving contractor) a credible means of ensuring that a diving contractor working for them on bidding on their contract, is compliant with best practice and with the law.  This lessens or may even negate consequential liability for the 3rd party employer. This means that 3rd party employers who are aware and concerned about their duties and responsibilities under the law will always specify that divers must be ADAS-qualified in their tender documents.

Also see: Career Opportunities

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