Professional
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about people called professionals. For the movie, see The Professionals. For the TV series, see The Professionals.
A professional can be either a person in a profession (certain types of skilled work requiring formal training / education) or in sports (a sportsman / sportwoman doing sports for payment). Sometimes it is also used to indicate a special level of quality of goods or tools.
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[edit] Work
A professional is a worker required to possess a large body of knowledge derived from extensive academic study (usually tertiary), with the training almost always formalized. Typical professions include accountants, architects, engineers, lawyers or doctors.
Professions are at least to a degree self-regulating, in that they control the training and evaluation processes that admit new persons to the field, and in judging whether the work done by their members is up to standard. This differs from other kinds of work where regulation (if considered necessary) is imposed by the state, and official quality standards are often lacking. Professions have some historical links to Guilds in this regard.
Professionals usually have autonomy in the workplace - they are expected to utilize their independent judgment and professional ethics in carrying out their responsibilities. This holds true even if they are employees instead of working on their own. Typically a professional provides a service in exchange for payment, in accordance with established protocols for licensing, ethics, procedures, standards of service and training / certification.
In narrow usage, not all expertise is considered a profession. Although sometimes referred to as professions, such occupations as skilled construction work are more generally thought of as trades or crafts. The completion of an apprenticeship is generally associated with skilled labor or trades such as carpenter, electrician, plumber, and other similar occupations. A related (though not always valid) distinction would be that a professional does mainly mental or administrative work, as opposed to engaging in physical work.
[edit] Sport
In sports, a professional is someone who participates for money. The opposite is amateur, meaning a person that does not play for money, but in an academic (e.g. college football) or other private setting. The term "professional" is commonly used incorrectly, as the distinction simply refers to how the athlete is funded, and not necessarily to what competitions he engages in or what results he achieves.
Sometimes the professional status of an activity is controversial, for example there is debate as to whether or not professionals should be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games. The motivation for money (either in rewards, salaries or advertising revenue) is sometimes seen as a corrupting influence, tainting a sport.
It has been suggested that the crude, all or nothing categories, of professional or amateur should be reconsidered. A historical shift is occurring with the rise of Pro-Ams, a new category of people that are pursuing amateur activities to professional standards.
In chess, a professional generally means a player with an official ranking. Amateurs are those without official rankings, having never played in a 'ranked' game.
[edit] Equipment
'Professional-grade' equipment is built to higher standards than 'consumer grade' equipment. Copyright laws that require copy protection in consumer equipment sometimes contain exemptions for professional grade audio (audio tape, CD) and video (VHS, DVD players) equipment (see DMCA). This equipment is usually more expensive and sometimes unavailable to the general public. The term may however also be used as a simple marketing ploy, as it is normally not protected or legally defined.
