Internships

Gap year?  Bored with your job?  Here is your solution! Training to become a professional dive leader is one of the most rewarding and fun activities in recreational scuba diving. Once qualified as a Divemaster or a Divng Instructor you can travel the world taking people diving and teaching diving courses. You can work part time, or make it a full time profession, sharing your passion for scuba diving with others!

Becoming a dive leader or a divemaster can be a life changing experience.  If you are bored with your job,  hangin' in there from 9 to 5, doing something you don’t really enjoy, then a career change might be required. A change of career to a job you love is incredibly rewarding. Waking up in the morning on a tropical island, meeting your divers and taking them on beautiful dives along the coral reefs of Koh Tao. Back at the dive school it's time for for lunch followed by an afternoon on the beach. This can be a typical day for a dive leader. And the divemaster training is not as hard as you might think!

At Sairee Cottage Diving Koh Tao we have put together three diving packages to choose from.  Each diving course package takes someone with no diving experience and trains them up to Divemaster level.  All the essential diving courses are included in these packages plus some extras, we feel, are important for your future diving career.  With each of our diving packages you have big savings on the course prices!  There is no hurry to make a desicion about PADI or SSI certification as of yet, you can choose between PADI and SSI once you have arrived in Koh Tao and one of our diving instructors has explained you the differences in detail.

We really enjoy teaching Divemasters here at Sairee Cottage Diving Koh Tao, you will receive a lot of personal attention because we assign one of our full-time diving instructors to you as a ‘personal mentor’.  All our instructors have years of experience teaching diving and will guide you through each course, including theory sessions and boat sessions, where they will show you how to become an effective dive leader.  You will learn all course subjects and gain from their years of experience taking people underwater.  You will also make good friends with other team members, and you will probably have a few late nights out with the crew!

We also help you find cheap Accommodation on Koh Tao if needed, in fact we can help you with most things on the island as we have been here for years. You will never feel overwhelmed by spending so much time away from home on a tropical island and you will have full support of the dive crew.

Please check out some of the comments of recently passed Divemaster Candidates at the bottom of the page!

So here are the diving packages we offer.  If you already have Open Water certification or even advanced we simply deduct the price of the courses already completed from the package price.  For detailed descriptions of the diving courses see the dive course page and as always, please email us with any queries info@saireecottagediving.com

DIVEMASTER ONLY : 25,000 BAHT Plus 6000 BAHT for Pro materials crew pack.

SILVER PACKAGE:

•          Open water diver
•          Advanced Course
•          Rescue diver / stress & rescue course
•          Respond Right First Aid
•          Divemaster
•          Basic equipment package
•          Professional dive leader manuals and materials. (Crew packs valued 6000 Baht)
•   Price 63,800 BAHT

GOLD PACKAGE:

•          Open water course
•          Advanced course
•          Rescue diver / stress & rescue course
•          Respond right First Aid
•          Divemaster
•          Diving medical
•          One year diving insurance cover
•          Deep and Nitrox specialty courses
•          Basic equipment package
•          Professional dive leader manuals and materials. (Crew packs valued 6000 Baht)
•   Price 74,000 BAHT

PLATINUM PACKAGE:

•          Open water course
•          Advanced course
•          Rescue diver / stress & rescue course
•          Respond right First Aid
•          Divemaster
•          Diving medical
•          One year diving insurance cover
•      Deep and Nitrox Specialty Certification
•          Basic equipment package
•          Professional dive leader manuals and materials. (Crew packs valued 6000 Baht)
•   Price 85,000 BAHT

All packages contain 9 nights’ accommodation in a basic room, after which time you may want to find longer term, cheaper accommodation which we are happy to help you find.

Non Professional PADI courses have additional fees for the manuals.  This is not included in the package price the price of each manual is 800-1000 Baht.

After certification as a Divemaster, you can dive whenever you return to Sairee Cottage Diving for only 100 baht per dive (around 2 euros). That deal lasts for life!

• FORMER DIVEMASTER STUDENTS COMMENTS!

“I came to koh Tao as part of my gap year travels around Asia and through many recommendations from my friends with the view to trying scuba diving for the first time and gaining my PADI certification! I completed my open water course with Sairee Cottage after a recommendation from a traveler I met one night in the legendary 'lotus bar'! I then left the island to experience the full moon party, and went straight back to Koh Tao, passed a couple of other dive courses with another much larger dive school which from the outside looked very glamorous but in reality was very machine like with no personal touches.

Decision made, I returned to Sairee cottage Dive School, spoke to my open water diving instructor, Bear, telling him I wanted to become a Divemaster and I never looked back. At Sairee Cottage they not only help you to achieve the relevant certification required to become a Dive Master, but they add further parts to the course that makes you a much more competent diver. So far I have now completed my deep dive specialty, enriched air course and boat handling certification. With Sairee Cottage you are very much part of the team with full on hands experience which is really what any potential employer or Scuba diving enthusiasts are looking for!

As a gap year experience I could not have asked for any more, in the 3 months I have been in Koh Tao I have experiences and friends for life from an island which no one ever wants to leave! Thank you Sairee Cottage!”

Mike 24, London, England

“I spent last summer living the beach life style in Greece and it was then I decided that this was the lifestyle for me. I had friends who had done their Dive Master in Koh Tao so decided to come out and in October and miss the Irish winter. I chose Sairee Cottages because I wanted to train with a smaller school to get a more personal experience. I spent three months doing my Divemaster training and loved it. The gang are really friendly and go out of their way to help you. They know how to have a good night out as well. When I finished up my training I started as one of full time Divemasters with the dive shop for the summer. It’s brilliant. I spend my days doing two or four dives a day, chilling out on the boat or by the beach and chatting to customers. It doesn’t even feel like work. It’s defiantly better than working in an office back in Ireland! “

Sarah 23, Ireland

“When I was travelling for 6 months in 2008-2009 I stumbled across this small island called Koh Tao. During my travelling I went to most of the hot spots in Thailand and without doubt koh Tao was my favorite. Many people I met travelling always said “oh you only go to Koh Tao if you are scuba diving”, not the case at all! You can party if you want to party, you can relax if you want to relax, you don’t feel under any pressure to do anything you don’t want to. Koh Tao has a little something for everyone’s needs. The most appealing element of the island for me was it hasn’t been westernised as much as other islands in Thailand have, it’s laid back approach makes you fall in love with the place!

In 2009 I completed both my open water and advanced scuba diving courses here, at the end of the courses my instructor at the time said to me “you will be back here one day to stay”. I batted away his comments as if it would never happen, yet….In January 2011 I returned to my little “paradise”.

Since I have returned I have never looked back, I have now completed my Divemaster training and I am currently working full time at Sairee Cottage Diving. Diving most days taking new people on amazing dives is one of the most satisfying feelings I have ever had. The staff here are so friendly it almost seems like you are “working” with your mates from home, being a relatively small dive school we are all very close friends who socialize together out with working hours and work well as a team. Although I say it’s a relatively small dive school, as I write this, Sairee Cottage’s are in the process of expanding their dive school by building brand new state-of-the-art dive shop, offices, equipment room and classrooms. Due to be finished in the next few months the developments and plans on the new sight look superb so watch this space…

I plan to return to the U.K in early July but for how long I can stay away from my “little paradise” remains to be seen…

Gordon MacBride 25, West Lothian, Scotland

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