17. What is the DACUM method?

DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) is an occupational analysis method aimed at the achievement of results that may be immediately applied to the development of training curricula. It has been specially promoted and developed by the Centre on Education and Training for Employment of the Ohio State University of the United States.(1)

Below, there is a review of the experiences carried out by INATEC of Nicaragua and the Ohio University with DACUM.

The National Technological Institute (INATEC)(2) of Nicaragua, with the advisory services of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), has recently worked on the design of its training programmes by taking DACUM as the starting point.

It is defined as a quick method to carry out occupational analysis at a low cost. It uses the technique of team work, with teams formed by workers who have experience in the occupation that is the object of the analysis. To make a workshop that uses DACUM groups of five to twelve people are formed. They are guided by a facilitator and they are supposed to describe in a clear and precise way the knowledge and the “know how” involved in the job position.

The result is usually expressed in the so-called “DACUM letter” or “DACUM map” where the job position is described in terms of the competencies and subcompetencies it requires.

At this point there may be a noticeable difference between the concept of competency that is used to carry out the functional analysis and the one used by DACUM. The latter considers that competency is the description of big tasks and, at the same time, it is the sum of a number of small tasks called subcompetencies. The total amount of competencies makes up the description of the tasks involved in a certain job position. Conversely, functional analysis does not describe tasks; it identifies the results that are necessary to fulfil the key purpose.

The examples available of DACUM letters usually show competencies that are described as operations or tasks. The rules to describe units and elements of competency used by functional analysis are not explicitly applied by DACUM.

The DACUM letter also includes the necessary knowledge, behaviours, conducts, equipment, tools, materials and the future development of a job position, as optional.

For Ohio University, DACUM is a widely used method that is unique, innovative and effective to carry out occupational analysis and work analysis.(3) It is developed by a working team that, generally in a two-day period, produces a detailed research chart with the tasks and duties developed by workers in a certain position.

Basic principles of DACUM(4)

• Expert workers(5) can describe their job better than anyone else. Those workers whose occupation is the object of the analysis and who have a good performance in that position are real experts on that type of job. Although first-rate supervisors and managers may know a lot about the work developed, they usually lack the necessary level of expertise to conduct a good analysis of such job.

• An effective way of defining an occupation is describing the tasks developed by expert workers. A worker may carry out several tasks that are highly appreciated by their colleagues and internal clients. To do this, attitudes and knowledge alone are not enough; they do things the right way when they develop activities which, if known by the enterprise, may facilitate better training for everyone else.

• To develop all tasks in an appropriate way, knowledge, behaviour and skills need to be applied, together with the use of tools and equipment. DACUM gives importance to the detection of factors that explain a successful performance. Therefore, it seeks to establish not only tasks but also a list of such factors. It further specifies the tools with which the worker interacts in order to facilitate practical training.

DACUM has been used to analyse occupations at the professional, executive, technical and operational levels. Its use as a methodology to analyse industrial processes and systems has made it popular in the United Sates, Canada and some Latin American countries (Chile, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela).

Its use is particularly promoted in order to guide the design of training programmes and to shorten the gap between training programmes’ content and what actually takes place at work. DACUM is also useful to training institutions that wish to implement competency-based programmes which require a careful identification of tasks and that are directly related to the competencies that are to be obtained. What follows is a typical example of a DACUM research chart.

 

 

 

 

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1Contact person: Robert Norton, e-mail: norton.1@osu.edu
2 INATEC-ILO, Metodología para la transformación curricular según los sistemas DACUM y SCID, Centro de Formación Nicaragüense-Holandés “Simón Bolivar”, Nicaragua, May 1997.
3 Ohio State University, Introduction to DACUM, 1995.
4 Op. cit.
5 Some versions of DACUM methodology explicitly ask for the best workers.

 

 

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