After only a few days off, the Cedifop Study Centre, a professional training body for industrial diving operating within the Port of Palermo, is preparing to restart its engines with a view to new activities.

In the meantime, the lessons of the 800-hour Operatore Tecnico Subacqueo (Technical Diving Operator) course financed by the European Social Fund, which has reached the halfway point, continue, at the end of which the Inshore/Diving Welders course, reduced to 120 hours, will begin. Only those students who have completed the previous OTS course (in addition to the 90% quota of dives required by the International Diving Schools Association's Level 2) may take part in this 3-week course.

Once this last course has been completed, between public financing and payment, a new self-financed 500-hour Technical Diving Operator course will begin on 2 December, which is scheduled to end on 21 March next year. Subsequently, it will be the turn of a new paid Inshore/Welder course in which only those who already hold the OTS qualification will be able to participate (in addition to the 70/80% quota of IDSA Level 2 dives). The duration of the course will be four weeks for a total of 160 teaching hours. The organisation, directed by the Greek Manos Kouvakis, is currently waiting for the next ESF calls for tenders in order to schedule the next publicly funded and paid courses valid for OTS, Inshore and Offshore levels. It is always good to specify that, at the end of the OTS courses, you can apply for registration in the Divers Register, at a Harbour Master's Office in Italy, for the issue of the ‘Reconnaissance Booklet’ (D.M. 13/01/1979) valid in accordance with and for the purposes of Framework Law No. 845/78, L.R. 29/16 and D.P. n° 6/18.The Underwater Technical Operator course is also valid for access to the Inshore (sub welder) and Offshore levels (International Marine Contractors Association ‘recommended’ pathway) for registration in the Telematic Repertoire at the Sicilian Region's Labour Department (LR 07/2016 and DPRS n. 31/2018) which allows work in the following countries: European Union (Directive 2005/36/EC), Australia, Canada, Egypt, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Mexico, Montenegro, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and United States of America.