Editing Profession (section)

{{short description|Vocation founded upon specialized educational training}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}

[[File:A farmer telling his family, a doctor, a vicar and a lawyer Wellcome V0011022.jpg|thumbnail|upright=1.3|A 19th century etching of a farmer consulting with his doctor, vicar and lawyer]]

A '''profession''' is a field of [[Work (human activity)|work]] that has been successfully [[professionalized]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perkin |first=Harold James |title=The Rise of Professional Society: England Since 1880 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2002 |isbn=9780415301787 |edition=2nd |language=en |oclc=1378675481 |author-link=Harold James Perkin}}</ref> It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, [[professional]]s, who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by the public as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others.<ref>{{cite web |year=2003 |title=What is a Profession |url=https://www.professions.org.au/what-is-a-professional |access-date=19 February 2020 |publisher=Australian Council of Professions |archive-date=1 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901054651/https://www.professions.org.au/what-is-a-professional/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What is a Profession |url=https://www.psc.gov.au/what-is-a-profession |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220312022406/https://www.psc.gov.au/what-is-a-profession |archive-date=12 March 2022 |access-date=9 August 2018 |publisher=Professional Standards Council}}</ref>

Professional occupations are founded upon specialized [[education]]al [[training]], the purpose of which is to supply disinterested objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain.<ref>[[New Statesman]], 21 April 1917, article by [[Sidney Webb]] and [[Beatrice Webb]] quoted with approval at paragraph 123 of a report by the UK Competition Commission, dated 8 November 1977, entitled {{usurped|1=[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140402141250/http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/1976_1979/108architects.htm ''Architects Services'']}} (in Chapter 7).</ref> Medieval and early modern tradition recognized only three professions: [[Divinity (academic discipline)|divinity]], [[medicine]], and [[law]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Popat |first=Nitin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C6ybCwAAQBAJ&q=oldest+profession+confidentiality&pg=PT215 |title=Introduction to Accounting |date=18 February 2016 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=9781329911642 |access-date=10 September 2016}}</ref><ref name="perks-p2">Perks, R.W. (1993): ''Accounting and Society''. London: [[Chapman & Hall]]; {{ISBN|0-412-47330-5}}. p.2.</ref> which were called the '''learned professions'''.<ref>See for example:
{{cite journal|date=August 1846|editor-last=Fisher|editor-first=Redwood|title=Statistics of the State of New-York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50ZKAAAAMAAJ|journal=Fisher's National Magazine and Industrial Record|volume=3|issue=3|pages=234|access-date=17 August 2013|quote=[...] the three learned professions of divinity, law, and medicine [...]}}
</ref> In some legal definitions, profession is not a [[Craft|trade]]<ref>John J Parker, "A Profession Not a Skilled Trade" (1955-1956) 8 South Carolina Law Quarterly 179 [https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/sclr8&div=32&id=&page= HeinOnline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806112249/https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/sclr8&div=32&id=&page=|date=6 August 2020}}; Sommerlad, Harris-Short, Vaughan and Young (eds), The Futures of Legal Education and the Legal Profession, Bloomsbury, 2015, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yUq9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT147 p 147]; Richard Colman, [https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/28/medicine-profession-not-trade "Medicine is a profession not a trade"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215092713/https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/28/medicine-profession-not-trade|date=15 December 2021}}, British Medical Journal, 7 October 2001; A M Linz, "A profession, not a trade" (December 1990) New York State Dental Journal 56(10):16 [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2080056/ PubMed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616195348/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2080056/|date=16 June 2018}}; E. G. Eberle, "The practice of medicine held to be a profession and not a trade" (August 1939) 28 Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association 482 [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jps.3080280802 Wiley] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215094207/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jps.3080280802|date=15 December 2021}}; Wendler, Tremml and Buecker (eds), Key Aspects of German Business Law: A Practical Manual, 2nd Ed, Springer, 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Nj6bBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA255 p 255]; William F Ryan, "Methods of Achieving Professional Recognition" (1946) The American Engineer, vols 16-17, p 8 [https://books.google.com/books?id=MdEmAAAAMAAJ] [https://books.google.com/books?id=v7gpAQAAMAAJ].</ref> nor an industry.<ref>(1961) [https://books.google.com/books?id=xHchAQAAIAAJ 2] The Industrial and Labour Law Digest, 1926-1959, Annotated 668; Sharma and Goyal, Hospital Administration And Human Resource Management, 5th Ed, PHI Learning, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HFzTry0ll9kC&pg=PA445 p 445].</ref>

Some professions change slightly in status and power, but their prestige generally remains stable over time, even if the profession begins to have more required study and formal education.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Fossum|first1=John|last2=Moore|first2=Michael|date=December 1975|title=The stability of longitudinal and cross-sectional occupational prestige rankings|url=https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(75)90072-X|journal=Journal of Vocational Behavior|volume=7|issue=3|pages=305–311|doi=10.1016/0001-8791(75)90072-X|via=Elsevier Science Direct|access-date=17 September 2020|archive-date=25 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220425154949/https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/000187917590072X|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Disciplines formalized more recently, such as architecture, now have equally long periods of study associated with them.<ref>Holm, Ivar (2006): ''Ideas and Beliefs in Architecture and Industrial design: How attitudes, orientations and underlying assumptions shape the built environment''. Oslo School of Architecture and Design. {{ISBN|82-547-0174-1}}.</ref>

Although professions may enjoy relatively high status and public prestige, not all professionals earn high salaries, and even within specific professions there exist significant differences in salary. In law, for example, a corporate [[defense lawyer]] working on an hourly basis may earn several times what a [[District attorney|prosecutor]] or [[public defender]] earns.