International Diving Schools Association (IDSA)

The International Diving Schools Association (IDSA) was formed in 1982 with the primary purpose of developing common International Diving Standards.
The Association is concerned with all divers - Offshore, Inshore and Inland - as well as specialist non-diving qualifications e.g. Supervisor, DMT and LST. It has already established International Diver Training Standards (details in the publications page) based on the consensus opinion of its many members. The Standards provide both a yardstick for those responsible for either administering existing National Standards or creating new ones, and a guide for Clients, Diving Contractors and Divers themselves. It is considered that the introduction of these Internationally agreed diver training standards will have the effect of:

• Improving Safety
• Providing Contractors with a direct input to the Diver Training Syllabus
• Enabling Contractors to bid across National Borders on a more even playing field
• Improving Diver quality 
• Providing Divers with greater Job Opportunities

Some governments have and will, set their own National diver training requirements. The IDSA programme provides a means of equating National Standards by maintaining a Table of Equivalence (details in the publications page).

Specialist standards are currently under development.