BRITISH PROFESSIONS TODAY: THE STATE OF ... - Property Week

Conclusion >>
The best augury of a man’s success
in his profession is that he thinks it
the finest in the world.
George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, 1876
The professions inform critical aspects of our
day-to-day lives, not only by providing key support
for individuals, businesses and the economy,
but also by leading the march forward, helping to
shape the way we think about the world through
quickly-changing times. This report has shown that
the professions are vital to the UK economy, at
the forefront of the drive for social progress as
catalysts for social mobility, and provide, pro bono,
essential technical expertise to policy-makers to
legislate on complex matters. The findings of this
report also suggest that professions are
unclassified, under-studied, and under-valued in
social and political life. Although the public broadly
trusts professionals more than others, particularly
politicians and ‘big business,’ trust is declining and
public perceptions are often distorted. Given this
ambivalent state of affairs, what does the future
hold for the professions in British society?
5.1 Summary of findings
No single definition of ‘profession’ exists. Sir Alan Langlands
posed a basic definition which we employ as an operational
definition throughout the report: those occupations “where
a first degree followed by a period of further study or
professional training is the normal entry route and where
there is a professional body overseeing standards of entry
to the profession” (Langlands 2005). Although we have
noted that a first degree is not always required at entry level
by all professions.
Professional structures have grown up from the social clubs
and guilds of old to the institutions of today via a process of
gradual establishment and entering into regulatory bargain
with the state. Whilst professions have gained societal
importance with the rise of the information age, they have
experienced a simultaneous gradual decline in public esteem.
People question the incentives and the motives of institutions
so powerful that they can create their own marketplace,
especially when the aftermath of scandals like Enron and the
Shipman murders fuel suspicions that the professions may not
always have the public interest at heart.
Regulation
The perceived self-interest of the professions has brought
about significant changes in regulatory structures in what many
would see to be a backlash against professional independence.
The traditional concept of self-regulation as vital to
professional identity is changing along with the evolution (and
fragmentation) of social organisations in today’s global world.
Lines have become blurred, not only in the professional sector,
British Professions Today: The State of the Sector © Spada Limited 2009 33