Hi All,

I am looking for a recommendation for the best dive shop in Pattaya or Phuket to do an internship.

I'm guessing you're going to have to be more explicit about what you mean by "internship." That generally means on-the-job training, which would imply the shop would be taking you on as an employee which, whether or not you'd be paid, raises the whole work permit and visa brouhaha. Something tells me you're going to have to go to some of the shops and try to sell yourself to them directly. Particularly at this time of the year it's probably not going to be an easy sell.

Firstly, Pattaya doesn't have much in the way of decent diving. It can not even begin to compare with the diving around Phuket in both quality and quantity of dive sites.

The main thing you want to be sure of is that whatever company you go with has their own boat, or even better, their own boats. There are 3 big companies in Phuket each of which have multiple day trip boats as well as livaboards. Forum rules don't allow me to post them here, but PM me and I will be glad to help.

Joe

For various reasons, you will see them outlined in this thread, I don't like internships. To top if of, it is illegal in Thailand.

Your best bet will probably be Mermaids in Pattaya.

I am looking for a friend. He is hoping to reach instructor status and then get a job teaching. He is living in the UK at the moment. I don't understand the comments of it being illegal as he will be learning and not working. Once he is qualified then obviously he will need a work permit to teach.

What PDS means is that an internship usually implies that you are at some point working to pay off your training. That means the certification you are working off is not rewarded to you until after you work it off, thus there is no way for the intern to have a work permit.