MATE - Marine Workforce Information

Occupational Guidelines

Knowledge and Skill Guidelines for Marine Occupations

A major goal of the MATE Center is to align curriculum and program development with the needs of employers. The Center believes that graduates from MATE-affiliated educational institutions should be well informed about workforce needs and well equipped with the skills required to enter marine technical occupations. To accomplish this, one of the methods used by the MATE Center is the development and use of Knowledge and Skill Guidelines. (Knowledge and Skill Guidelines may also be referred to as Occupational Guidelines or Standards or Skill Standards.)

What are skill standards and why were they developed?
What process does the MATE Center use to develop its Knowledge and Skill Guidelines?
What has been especially helpful to the MATE Center in developing those Guidelines?
Which Marine Occupations has the MATE Center developed Guidelines for?

1. What are skill standards and why were they developed?

Skill Standards are agreed-upon, industry-identified knowledge, skills, and abilities required to succeed in the workplace. Skill standards let us know what workers need to know and be able to do to perform their jobs well.

The MATE Center has chosen to use the words Knowledge and Skill Guidelines rather than Skill Standards in this process. We have found the word "guidelines" to be more appealing to marine technical professionals because it more closely implies that the guidelines are voluntary rather than mandated.

Click here to see how skill standards can benefit employers, workers, students, and educators

2. What process does the MATE Center use to develop its Knowledge and Skill Guidelines?

The process used by the MATE Center closely follows that outlined in the Skill Standards Guidebook I (October 1996) prepared by the Boeing Company, The Center for Career and Work-related Education, and the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

Very simply, we select a marine occupation based on employer surveys, the advice of experts in the field, and other labor market information. A highly structured workshop (modified DACUM* - Developing A CUrriculuM) is then conducted with a group of eight to twelve technical professionals. During the workshop, these professionals work with a trained facilitator for one to two days to define the job functions and tasks associated with their specific marine occupation. The information gathered during the workshop is used to develop draft guidelines which are then sent out to hundreds of technical professionals, representing large and small organizations from the public and private sector, for validation.

*Norton, R.E. 1996. DACUM Handbook. Center on Education and Training for Employment, College of Education, The Ohio State University, 1900 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210

3. What has been especially helpful to the MATE Center in developing these Guidelines?

Running our workshops in conjunction with a conference. Finding participants can be a chore, especially marine professionals who spend a great deal of time at sea. By running our workshops proceeding or following a professional society, industry, or other type of conference, we can take advantage of many marine professionals being in the same geographic location at the same time. We can also ask for assistance from conference organizers in recommending participants and providing contact information for hotels, meeting rooms, and caterers.

Sending out a skills survey to the workshop participants in advance and compiling the results prior to the workshop greatly jump-starts the process and allows us to cover much more in the precious time we have. Critics may say we are breaking the cardinal rule of a DACUM; however, we have found that some participants communicate more effectively on paper rather than orally, and getting input in two different ways may give us a more balanced representation of everyone's ideas. Click here to view a pre-workshop skills survey.

Sending out employer surveys, to people "high up" in the organizations of the workshop participants to determine the following: the skills employers believe are most important and hardest to find; the nature and need for these workers (present and future); salary ranges; and interest in hosting internships. Click here to view an employer survey.

Recording workshop information directly onto a laptop computer that is projected onto a large screen by a HIGH-resolution projector. This makes viewing the progress easy and encourages comments by the workshop participants. This also makes altering the charts quick and easy.

Running the validation survey* with the endorsement of professional societies and other relevant organizations has been very helpful in selecting the appropriate audience. The affiliation also gives the survey added recognition which, in turn, increases the response rate.

* Validation surveys are designed to test the range applicability of the Knowledge and Skill Guidelines.

For more information on validation surveys, contact Deidre Sullivan, MATE's Curriculum and Industry Manager, at (831) 646-3081 or deidres@marinetech.org.

Click here to view a checklist for conducting a skills workshop

4. Which Marine Occupations has the MATE Center developed guidelines for?

Guidelines developed by MATE partner institutions:
Aquaculture Technician
Oil-Spill Response Technician


	What is Marine Technology? Occupational Guidelines Employer and Technician Surveys Educational Competencies