Hayley Barrett: Destined to dive

It could be said that commercial diver, Hayley Barrett was destined for a career in diving. While attending St. Bonaventure's College private school in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, Hayley was already unknowingly preparing for her future career by enjoying years of recreational scuba diving.

However, her hobby became a career goal when she headed to Seneca College in King City, Ontario to complete an ‘underwater skills’ course following high school. This was Hayley’s introduction to commercial diving and she was told about the value of the 3.1u NDT underwater inspection certification whilst working at Pro-Dive Marine Services. This, in turn, caused Hayley to head over to the UK to train with TWI for this qualification. She funded the training herself, having saved up.

The instructors on the course were amazing!

It was a lot of material to cover in such a short amount of time, but they were really helpful and went out of their way to assist you in any way they could.

Hayley Barrett, NDT underwater inspection student

Hayley says that she would 100% recommend TWI to others as she now plans to continue her training with the 3.2u, 3.4u and, eventually, the 3.9u in order to increase her employability.

Working in Newfoundland, Hayley has taken on jobs for a number of different companies, although has primarily worked for Pro-Dive Marine Services and Central Diving. Her job responsibilities, as she explained, include "a lot of underwater inspection, construction, ship husbandry, cleaning, wharf work, dry-docking vessels, basically anything that needs to be done below the surface."

She continued, "When another diver is in the water I am responsible for dressing them in, getting everything (such as his tools) ready to go, make sure everything is in working order, tending their umbilical, or being the stand-by diver in case of any emergencies."

Hayley is one of very few female divers in Newfoundland, although she has been treated no differently from her male peers, revealing, "I wouldn't say it's any more difficult to be a woman in the industry than it is to be a man. Just because there are not many of us, doesn't mean it is harder because of our gender. What I've found working in Canada is that I've been treated equally in comparison with the guys and I haven't felt myself treated any differently because I am a female. I don't know why there are not more women in this industry, maybe it's stigmatisation to do with it being mostly male dominated, I'm not sure."

Hayley's story goes to show that gender can and should be irrelevant in the workplace and that all that matters is skill, dedication and, of course, the right training!

The course content was great!

The facilities were great as well, the classroom was conducive to learning and the dive tank had all the appropriate gear and equipment.

Hayley Barrett, NDT underwater inspection student

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