Name: Diploma in Commercial Skydiving
Phone: +64 3 302 9143
Fax: +64 3 302 9140
Email: info@skydivingnz.com
Website: www.skydivingnz.com
Director: Kirsty Smith
Location: New Zealand Skydiving School
Duration: 32 Weeks
Tuition: Please email info@skydivingnz.com for current information
Financial Aid: Only for New Zealand and Australian Residents
Curriculum Highlights: 200 Skydives!  Career opportunities such as Parachute Packing, Manifesting, Video Editing, and Freefall Camera.  With a little experience, you can also qualify to be a Jumpmaster, Instructor, and eventually a Tandem Master.  All of these positions are in high demand at any commercial dropzone
Setting: Methven, New Zealand.  Methven, Mt Hutt Village, is often considered the very best of heartland New Zealand.  Only an hour drive from Christchurch, Methven nestles among the rich farmland of the Canterbury Plains.  The rugged Southern Alps majestically rise up from the patchwork of these plains and set the perfect scene for a dropzone.  The dropzone is located at the base of Mt. Hutt, New Zealand's skiing and snowboarding heaven.  The mighty Rakaia River just minutes down the road boasts a spectacular scenic jet boat experience and some of New Zealand's largest salmon. For more information on Methven visit www.mthuttvillage.co.nz
Program Highlights: Visit www.newzealandskydivingschool.com or www.skydivingnz.com for more highlights!

First established in 1981, the New Zealand Skydiving School is currently based at Pudding Hill, approximately 1 hours drive from Christchurch, and 10 minutes from Methven.  The school operates alongside Skydivingnz.com a commercial dropzone offering Tandem Skydiving to the local and tourist markets.  The close association between the two organizations means students receive first hand training at a fully operational dropzone.  Both the New Zealand Skydiving School and Skydivingnz.com have the approval of the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association (NZPIA), the nation's standards setting body.

Quality Education is the key to safe and enjoyable skydiving.  The New Zealand Skydiving School has a team of some of the most capable Instructors and staff from both New Zealand and overseas.

The full Diploma in Commercial Skydiving is a 32 week intensive course which includes 200 skydives.  The course is targeted at students of varying levels of experience and aims to give them a broad range of knowledge, skills and practical experience to make them highly employable in the commercial skydiving field.  If you enter the course with an A Licence the course is 28 weeks and includes 175 skydives.

Subject areas covered within the course include; manifesting and load organising, parachute packing, video editing, sales techniques, meteorology, freefall photography and much more.  Once students have gained a thorough working knowledge of the industry they have the opportunity to put everything into practice during their 12 week organised work placement, at a commercial drop zone.

In terms of employment opportunities, to date 98.5% of all the graduates have been offered employment on completion of their work placement, proving that the qualification has been accepted and valued amongst industry members.  Initial jobs have included freefall video/cameraperson, parachute packing and manifesting, which allows graduates to gain the necessary experience and jump numbers to further their career in the industry.  Some of the 2001 graduates are now multi-rated with in excess of 4000 skydives.

Over recent years we have had significantly more international students on the diploma course.  These students are now working in the skydiving industry around the world and as a result of positive feedback and international marketing overseas, enrolments continue to increase.  Due to the growing popularity of the Diploma Course and the skydiving industry as a whole the school has experienced rapid growth over the years.  We have a fantastic group of instructors from around the world and our international contact base is growing.  Dropzones from Australia, Spain, South Africa and the US are now taking students from our course.