Careers

Careers as a Commercial Diver

Your commercial diving experience gained with us here in Tasmania will provide you with a great start to your new career.  Once you have completed your training, however, you then need to start the most important element – getting that first role in industry.

All Part of the Service

As part of our service to newly qualified divers, we will provide you with an introduction and interview with the biggest recruiters of divers within the aquaculture industry - Tassal Group Ltd and Huon Aquaculture Co Pty Ltd.  

As an additional service to all our graduates, we also offer a CV service – provided by our sister school in Fort William.  Once you complete your course with us, we will post your CV to The Underwater Centre’s website for 8 weeks.  During that time, contractors looking for divers will be able to view all the CVs listed on the site and contact those it thinks will suit the role best.  Again this is a unique service we offer, along with our Fort William school, which you won’t get from on anyone else.  This is another great way to help you get that all-important first job.

We will also provide you with a directory of all worldwide diving and ROV contractors, which you can use to contact these companies directly – contacting them regarding job opportunities or just getting your name known within the company.

Inshore Work

Once you have successfully trained and qualified as a commercial diver, your next step is to gain more experience working subsea.  Generally your first role will be in inshore or civil engineering diving.  This could encompass a variety of work including inspecting ships’ hulls, maintaining harbours, assessing dams, aquaculture work, for example.  Each of which will put the experience you have gained during your training with us in the use of various hand tools into practice. 

Working inshore within Australasia, you can expect to earn between $250 and $800 per day, depending on your experience and who you are working for. Visit our courses page to find out more about training to become an inshore commercial diver and the qualifications you'll need.

Offshore Work

Thanks to the high price of oil, we are experiencing a high demand for offshore divers in the Australasia region at the moment.  The higher the price of oil, the more economic it is to drill for oil in more remote or hard to reach areas.  This demand is therefore enticing more experienced civils or inshore divers to the more lucrative offshore industry.

The offshore oil and gas industry is easily one of the largest employers of commercial divers.  More recently, though, the offshore renewables industry is also looking to tap into this skill base.  According to a recent report by business analyst Douglas Westwood, some 2200 commercial divers will be required during the build and development phases for the installation of offshore wind farms over the next six years.

As an offshore diver, earning potential can again vary depending on where you are working and the work you are carrying out.  Day rates can be over $1300 offshore Australia, but working offshore overseas could mean higher day rates. To be qualified to work offshore, read about the qualifications you'll need here.

Mixed Gas Diving

Once you have gained enough experience as a commercial air diver, you can return to The Underwater Centre, Tasmania to attend our ADAS Part 4 Closed Bell Course.  Many commercial divers see this certification as their ultimate aim.  Working as a closed bell, or saturation diver can demand very high day rates – around $1600. For more information about training as a closed bell diver, read about our Part 4 Course here.