Professional activity - what is it? Professional activity: spheres, goals, types, features

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Professional can be called the sphere of socially oriented, objective activity. Depending on the target orientation and the system of criteria, it is possible to limit the subject of this area in different ways.

What is a professional activity?

Let's highlight only the essential features that are obvious, and in the presence of which it makes sense to call the activity professional.

• The system of knowledge and experience. First of all, if we are talking about professionalism, it should be based on awareness, some skills and abilities, without the combination of which it is impossible to become a professional.
• Conceptual system. It is impossible to correlate a person with a subject area if he does not speak a professional language.
• Methodology. The ability to apply acquired knowledge in reality.

To summarize: professional activity is a system of knowledge based on the experience of its application. Practice is, on the one hand, the result of development, and on the other hand, the basis for further growth.

Spheresprofessional activities

In order to classify areas of expertise, strict selection criteria must be set. Otherwise, there is a risk of inconsistency in the study of a subject that is quite extensive. Let's take the most obvious postulates as a basis.

It can be said that there is intellectual and physical labor. It is clear that physical work, even the roughest, requires intellectual resources, but is not limited to them.

Professional areas:

• humanitarian (target is human);
• science (nature);
• social (society).

Professional activity is the production of a socially significant product or service in the public spheres.

Goals and motives

Goal is a time- and space-determined idea of the final result of the work. It can be personal and professional. Interests may coincide, in which case there is a strong personal motivation for professional development. Professional activity goals - is the most important indicator in determining the skill levels of specialists. If there is no understanding of the purpose and orientation of activity, then it makes no sense to talk about professionalism. Even if the work is carried out in a narrow field of the subject environment, in this case the goal is limited in scope and is a stage for performing a deeper, fundamental task.

The psychology of professional activity is the science of the patterns of human development ina subject environment that emphasizes goal setting.

The goal of a teacher, for example, may be the victory of his students in the regional Olympiad in the subject. Here both a personal goal and a professional goal are combined, which is strictly determined by the subject of training and the amount of work. It is framed in time (the date of the Olympiad) and in space (regional level). The goal satisfies the ambitions of the teacher and the personal ambitions of a person who does socially important work and receives an appropriate reward for this.

Who can be called a professional?

Let's try to deal with this issue. A coach who knows from "A" to "Z" the rules and techniques that allow a swimmer to achieve high results, but he himself does not know how to swim - is he a pro in his field? The question is not idle, often in life we see how a person teaches something to others, without having personal results in practice.

This has become especially noticeable in the era of the Internet. A large number of participants in the virtual space have made it a rule to teach a lot of people in any field, arrogantly calling themselves professionals… Newly appeared speakers who retell well-known teachings are trying to win the laurels of the "guru" among the crowd of listeners. A familiar picture?

On the other hand, consider a person who has good results in a subject environment. Anyone who produces a socially demanded product knows the craft. He is not always able to explain how he does it, to theoretically outline the production process, but he gives the desired result in the best way. Professionalin his business this man? The answer will be yes.

Therefore, the well-known expression “judge by deeds” takes place in this context. Practice in this case is the criterion of truth.

Types of professions

Professional activity is an area of competence that is limited by scope. For example, the social sphere involves hiring a specialist with an appropriate training profile. Each of the areas, in turn, includes a lot of narrow areas, professions.

A profession is a field of activity limited by standards, which involves a certain amount, level of knowledge and skills in their practical application. There is a world classifier of professions, which gives their description - it contains more than nine thousand titles. In Russia, a similar document contains seven thousand titles.

Professional areas are subject areas in which specialists work. The list of spheres is not static. From year to year, new areas of labor activity appear and professions that become unclaimed disappear. This directly depends on the development of the technical capabilities of society.

Levels of subject area development

Profession is a narrow area of practical application of knowledge, skills and abilities for a specialist.

Professional activities are certain stages in the development of a specialist in the subject area. The speci alty can be obtained in educational institutions of various levels, in centers, courses, remotely and in other ways. The basics of professional activity are confirmed by a certificate, which indicates the level of knowledge obtained for a certain number of study hours and confirmed by the results of the test in a credit or examination form. The speci alty implies the presence of a sufficient amount of knowledge for practical application in the professional field of production.

Specialist, professional, expert

Often referred to as "an expert in his field." Behind this assessment is the recognition of a person's competence in the field in which he practices activities. When they say about a person “he is a professional”, this is more than competence. This is an expert level. This is not only recognition of competence in one's field, but also the ability to step over the boundaries of one's own knowledge, the ability to give a value judgment about the subject of activity in comparison with similar results in other special areas of activity.

Specialist, professional, expert - these are the stages of mastering the subject area in any area of socially significant activity.

Code of Ethics

Professionalism is not only a high level of expertise in your field. The ethical component is also a significant indicator of the quality of a specialist. This is especially true of humanitarian areas of professional activity aimed at serving a person.

The Code of Ethics is a set of rules, following which is a prerequisite for belonging to a professional environment. It contains norms as categoricalprescriptions in the performance of functions by a specialist.

There are a number of professions for which compliance with the norms of the code of ethics is mandatory. These are spheres of professional activity, one way or another affecting the life of a particular person. First of all - medicine, jurisprudence, state security, education.

Professional ethics is manifested in the service of one's duty. Consider examples of this social phenomenon.

Serving the profession

Such a field of knowledge as the psychology of professional activity suggests that service is often the highest value of a person. Numerous testimonies of fidelity to duty confirm this. Sometimes a doctor is ready to find a way to cure a serious illness at the cost of his life.

Not necessarily sacrificial heroism serves as a measure of professional duty. The great Mechnikov made a number of discoveries in the field of medicine during his life, thanks to which prospects opened up in the creation of drugs that help people overcome death. His whole life is an example of ethical service to the people.

Writer Solzhenitsyn Alexander Isaevich managed not to change his principles in conditions of the most severe censorship and punishment for the free expression of civil position.

He turned his voice into a written record of the era. Thanks to his willpower, desire for freedom, honesty and consistency in citizenship, the world received literary masterpieces paid for at the cost of personal freedom.

ArtworksThe Gulag Archipelago, Cancer Ward, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich give an assessment of historical realities through the eyes of a witness of that era.

These are living examples of service to the profession, which left mankind an invaluable result, the social effect of which cannot be estimated.

The future belongs to professionals

In order to understand in what professional environment it is possible to reveal one's abilities in the best possible way, it is important to realize one's need for society in a timely manner. Assess the need for your personal resource and opportunities. Therefore, choosing a professional path is one of the most important educational tasks of the education system as a whole.

The discipline "professional self-determination of students" has been officially introduced in educational institutions. Its subject is the study of the world of professions, the features of professional activity. The purpose of the discipline is to help students relate their abilities to the needs and demands of society.

In this case, the meaning of life is revealed to a person, he will feel the demand from society. His social reward will also be appropriate. It is in this situation that a person is said to be “in his place.”