International Diving Schools Association (IDSA)[1] was formed in 1982 with the primary purpose of developing common international standards for commercial diver training.
The Association is concerned with offshore, inshore and inland commercial diving and some specialist non-diving qualifications such as diving supervisors, diving medical technicians and life support technicians. It has published international diver training standards[2] based on the consensus of members which provide a basic standard of comparison for commercial diver training standards, with the stated intention of:-
IDSA provides a Table of Equivalence of various national commercial diver training standards.[3]
IDSA standards are recognized in the Danish,[4] Norwegian[5][6] and Italian (Sicily)[7] legislation.