SSI Divemaster course in Gozo, Malta
Your first professional rating.
The SSI Divemaster is where recreational diving stops being a hobby and starts being a job. Train as an intern inside Bubbles Dive Centre, the world's number one training centre by professional certifications issued, a working dive centre, not a training bubble, under Platinum Pro Instructor Trainer Lee Rigby, on Gozo. One of the Mediterranean's best year-round dive destinations.
Flexible start dates (Mar–Nov)
#1 Training Centre Worldwide
at least 1 Fun Dive per day
The first professional rating in the SSI System
An SSI Divemaster is a certified dive professional. You can guide certified divers on your own, assist instructors on training programmes, and teach SSI Ecology specialties to certified divers. Underwater, you're the person the group looks to, and the training actually gets you ready for that.
It's also the door into everything above it, if you want to walk through. Every SSI instructor was a Divemaster first. Finish the course, decide you want to teach, and the Instructor Training Course → is right there waiting. Plenty of people take their Divemaster and stop, too, and that's fine. It's a serious qualification and a serious jump in your diving on its own, whether you ever work a day of it or not.
Either way, it's a genuine professional rating, not a gap-year badge. You'll dive more, learn how a dive shop actually runs, and come out knowing how to guide, read a site, and navigate it properly, a noticeably better diver than you went in.
If you trained with PADI or another agency, that experience still counts. At Divemaster level, the logo on your card matters far less than your confidence, professionalism and ability in the water. Divemaster ratings are recognised across the major agencies.
Agency choice starts to matter more once you move into instructor training, since dive centres care which system you're qualified to teach. SSI is growing fast, and more centres worldwide are switching to it for the digital system and the dive-centre-focused approach.
Bubbles is an SSI Career Centre — the highest tier — one of 12 in the world and the only one in Malta.
Train as a Divemaster intern in gOZO
Every Divemaster candidate joins Bubbles as a trainee intern. Most Divemaster courses run you through a fixed sequence, tick the boxes, hand you a card. Bubbles doesn't work that way. From day one you're in the middle of real courses, real students, a real dive centre. Your programme fits your experience and moves as your confidence grows, not the other way round. One to two months is typical, we don't rush people out to make room for the next intake. Stay longer if you want, plenty do.
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Deep Diving, Navigation and Night & Limited Visibility training, SSI Science of Diving, Stress & Rescue, demonstration-quality skill sessions, watermanship and fitness.
Real-world experience
At least one fun dive a day on average, shadowing instructors, assisting on live courses, becoming part of how the centre actually runs day to day. There's always something happening, and always something to learn from it.
Responsibility
This is training, not free labour. As your skills grow, you take on more inside the Divemaster team: supporting instructors, helping run operations, building the kind of confidence a working professional needs.
Busiest Training Centre In the world
Where you do your Divemaster shapes the professional you become. Somewhere quiet, you certify having done the minimum. Here, you certify having done the job.
Around 30 Divemasters and 12 instructor courses a year come through Bubbles. We issued 31% of SSI certifications in Malta in 2025 and we are the #1 training centre in the world by professional certifications issued. There's always a course to assist on, always something happening, and we've watched enough candidates come through to know exactly what makes one employable.
Mostly it's small things. Being a strong diver gets you in the door, it isn't the qualification itself. What gets you hired is everything else: kit ready before anyone asks, a briefing that doesn't wander, knowing which diver in the group needs watching, paperwork actually done, the log actually filled in. A busy centre runs on that kind of rigour. The only way to learn it is from inside one.
You'll pick it up from a team, not one person: Lee Rigby, an SSI Platinum Instructor Trainer running one of the most successful instructor-training operations anywhere, an Assistant Instructor Trainer, and a full instructor team behind them.
And it's Gozo. One of Europe's best diving destinations, 30m visibility, wrecks, walls, caverns and deep sites all within minutes of the centre. The MV Karwela is legendary. The Blue Hole and Inland Sea are world-class. This is a place where you can go all the way to the top of the sport.
we'll get you everything you need
There's no minimum dive count to start your Divemaster internship with us. What matters is where you need to be by the time you certify, and whatever you're missing on the way there, we build into your programme on Gozo.
To certify as an SSI Divemaster, you must have:
That's most people's starting point. Missing Stress & Rescue, missing specialties, short on dive count, we fold all of it into your programme so you're working toward the Divemaster from your first day in the water, not sitting around waiting to qualify to begin.
Come When you like, March to November
There's no rigid intake calendar to plan around. We take Divemaster interns all season, March through November. Tell us roughly when you'd like to come and we'll find a start date that works for you and for us. Interns usually start around the beginning of a month. We don't run the programme in December, January or February as it's low season in the Mediterranean.
Nothing to pay SSI, ever, nothing extra to chase.
Price depends on your starting point, where you're at and what's left to complete.
One Price, everything in it
Tell us your current certification level and dive count and we'll send you a full programme scope and a proposed start date.
FAQ
How long does the SSI Divemaster course take?
Four to eight weeks, typically, depending on where you're starting from and how quickly you move through the practical requirements. A lot of interns stay on longer once they've hit every requirement, just to bank more experience.
Do I need to be an Advanced diver first?
No, you can get all the requirements done with us. Tell us what you hold and we’ll map out a plan.
Can I work as a Divemaster straight after qualifying?
Yes. The SSI Divemaster is a professional rating that allows you to work in dive centres worldwide, guide certified divers, assist courses and become part of a professional dive team.
At Bubbles, we only hire from our own training programm. Many Divemasters use the programme as their first serious step into the industry, while many others continue straight into Assistant Instructor or Open Water Instructor training to become more employable faster.
I trained with PADI (or another agency) , can I still join?
Yes. Certifications from PADI, NAUI, SDI, RAID, CMAS and other recognised agencies stand in for the SSI equivalents. You're not starting from scratch. Tell us what you hold and we'll map what carries across before you commit to anything.
What if I want to become an instructor after finishing the Divemaster?
The Divemaster is the entry qualification for the SSI Instructor Training Course, so finishing it here means you can move straight into the ITC. You already know the team, the sites, the standard we train to. We run an ITC every month, so you can stack both certifications faster here than most places.
Your Divemaster Journey starts here
Bubbles Dive Centre runs almost year-round intakes, tell us where you are now and we'll map the pathway, prerequisites and timing to your situation.
4.9 from more than 277 Google reviews
-
Address 200 Bar, Triq il-Menqa, Gozo MFN 1303
-
WhatsApp +356 2702 8299
-
Email info@diving-gozo.com
-
Open Daily · 8:30 – 17:30