Qualifications and competency

Occupational divers and recreational divers need to be competent for the diving activity being undertaken. Persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) must ensure divers hold appropriate qualifications and are competent to undertake the dive in question.

Diving procedures should be developed in consultation with workers and should be documented along with the responsibilities of each appointed member of the dive team and associated workers, such as a vessel master. It is important that the PCBU provides induction and ongoing training, such as toolbox talks and emergency drills so that responsibilities are clearly allocated and the procedures to be followed are known to all parties.

Recreational diving

For non-certified and entry level certificate divers, the instructor should assess the environmental conditions and the abilities of participants before commencing the dive. If the planned dive is outside the abilities of divers, then further control measures need to be implemented or the diving cancelled until such time as it can be conducted safely.

Certified divers should have their competency assessed. Operators should include some questions on their diving experience and the amount of time that has passed since their previous dive. If there are doubts as to the competence of the diver to complete a particular dive, a certified assistant or instructor should accompany the diver on that dive or assess the diver during an assessment dive.

Recreational snorkelling

Snorkellers should be assessed for their medical fitness and ability to snorkel. Based upon this assessment some snorkellers may be identified as at risk. At risk snorkellers should be provided with additional control measures to ensure their safety.

Where a person is identified as an at risk snorkeller, the dive operator should ensure they:

• are easy to identify in the water to assist in providing closer supervision
• wear and / or use flotation
• snorkel in a buddy pair.

Additional controls that may assist an at risk snorkeller:

• providing an in-water guide to ensure supervision and skills demonstration
• keeping the snorkeller close to the vessel to ensure closer supervision
• suggesting they wait before entering the water if environmental conditions are expected to improve or to avoid the initial rush of snorkellers entering the water.

Occupational diving (high risk diving work)

Divers, dive supervisors, standby divers and attendants must be qualified and competent in accordance with AS2299.1:2015 Occupational diving operations Standard operational practice. For example, divers and dive supervisors may hold appropriate ADAS qualifications for the work being undertaken.

This standard also details the dive team size and roles for different types of high risk diving work.

Depending on the type of work being conducted, dive workers may need to hold further qualifications e.g., dogging and rigging tickets for slinging loads.

Occupational diving (general diving work)

In determining the most appropriate competency options for general diving work, the PCBU should review the work and ensure that the competency option selected is relevant to the work. Issues to consider should include:

• the diving environment
• the diving equipment and breathing gas to be used
• the decompression schedule to be used
• the tasks to be undertaken
• any tools to be used
• any other hazards associated with the task.

The competency for general diving work consists of two parts.

Firstly the diver must hold an appropriate qualification. The qualification can be either:

• a statement of attainment from a relevant VET course for relevant diving units of competency under the following subject streams
• a certificate from a dive training organisation that is the equivalent to AS 4005.2:2002 Training and certification of recreational divers, Part 2 - recreational SCUBA dive supervisor (e.g. a Divemaster certificate issued by the Professional Association of Dive Instructors).

Secondly the diver must have, through training, qualification or experience, acquired sound knowledge and skill that is relevant to their general diving work in relation to the following competency checklist:

• the application of diving physics
• the use, inspection and maintenance of diving equipment (including emergency equipment) and air supply of the type to be used in the proposed general diving work
• the use of decompression tables or dive computers
• dive planning
• ways of communicating with another diver and with persons at the surface during general diving work
• how to safely carry out general diving work of the type proposed to be carried out
• diving physiology, emergencies and first aid.

Other competency options exist for specific circumstances:

• incidental diving work (e.g. for an actor undertaking diving during a film shoot)
• limited scientific diving work – for visiting overseas scientists working in Australia.

A dive supervisor for general diving work must be competent to dive and have experience in the diving work to be supervised (e.g. as recorded in the diver's log book). The appointed dive supervisor must prepare any dive plan and give others workers instruction about the plan. The dive supervisor must also verify the return of each diver on the dive safety log and count and record the number of persons on board before each vessel departure.