What you'll learn

• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of closed bell, saturation, life-support and emergency systems.
• Understand diving gas partial pressures, depth or pressure changes and decompression tables.
• Manage the closed bell environment, communications and diving gas supplies.
• Safely transfer under pressure.
• Perform the role of Bellman and tend divers to and from a closed bell.
• Perform diver lockouts to and from a closed bell.
• Recover a stricken diver into a closed bell.
• Perform closed bell diving and saturation chamber emergency procedures.

Prerequisites and entry requirements

• Hold a valid and approved surface supplied diving qualification to 50 meters and have held that qualification for a minimum period of 12 months. Candidates are welcomed from anywhere in the globe, although the necessary diving qualification will be asrequired in the country of training delivery (in the UK, this is the EDTC diving competency standards for offshore surface supplied diver qualification).
• Hold a valid certificate of medical fitness to dive which remains in date for the duration of the training course.
• Hold a valid certificate of competence in first aid at work, which remains in date for the course, or undertake that training as part of the course of instruction.
• Have recorded, since qualifying as an offshore surface supplied breathing apparatus (SSBA) diver, at least 100 dives using SSBA, and at least 100 hours of bottom time.

Course duration and format

Duration: Three weeks

Price: £30,000 + VAT

DEEP’s closed bell diver training course is a three-week program for six students, combining theoretical and practical training. During weeks one and two, training will be split into half days for theory in the classroom and practical in-water learning. This is followed in week three by a saturation dive from the closed bell system and the final examination.

Certificate

On successful completion, candidates will achieve the UK HSE Closed Bell Diver certification.

The UK HSE Closed Bell Diver qualification is the highest-level professional commercial diving certification issued by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for saturation and mixed-gas bell diving. It is accepted and widely respected across the global commercial diving industry.

As a UK HSE approved course, it signals professionalism and readiness to employers that there is independent oversight that training has occurred on real-world equipment and learning has been delivered by high-quality operators aligned to global safety standards.

UK HSE diving qualifications (including Closed Bell) remain valid indefinitely once issued. They do not need periodic renewal. However, certification does not guarantee competence forever and a diving contractor or employer must be satisfied that a diver remains competent for the work they are asked to do.

Career outcomes

Receiving an HSE Closed Bell Diver ticket is a gateway to the offshore saturation diving industry, encompassing roles across oil and gas subsea construction, underwater inspection, repair, and maintenance (IRM), ROV-assisted saturation work and much more.