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

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?

We single out 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, when it comes to professionalism, the basis should be awareness, some skills and abilities, without the totality of which it is impossible to become a professional.
• Conceptual system. It is impossible to correlate a person with the 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 knowledge system based on the experience of its application. Practice is, on the one hand, the result of development, and on the other, the basis for further growth.

Professional Areas

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

We can say that there is intellectual and physical labor. It is clear that physical work, even the toughest, requires intellectual resources, but is not limited to them.

Areas of professional activity:

• humanitarian (the goal is a person);
• natural science (nature);
• social (society).

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

Goals and motives

The goal is an idea defined by time and space about the final result of the work. She can be personal and professional. Interests may coincide, and in this case there is a strong personal motivation for professional development. The goals of professional activity is an important indicator in determining the skill levels of specialists. If there is no understanding of the purpose and orientation of the activity, then it makes no sense to talk about professionalism. Even if the work is carried out in a narrow field of the subject medium, in this case the goal is limited in volume and is a stage for performing a deeper, fundamental task.

The psychology of professional activity is the science of the laws of human development in the subject environment, which attaches great importance to setting goals.

The teacher’s goal, for example, can be the victory of his students in a regional subject Olympiad. It combines a personal and a professional goal, which is strictly defined 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 a corresponding reward for this.

Who can be called a professional?

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

This was especially noticeable in the era of the Internet. A large number of participants in the virtual space made it a rule to teach a lot of people in any field, arrogantly calling themselves professionals … Newly-spoken speakers who retell famous teachings are trying to gain laurels from 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 sought after product knows the craft. He can not always explain how he does this, theoretically describe the production process, but he gives the desired result in the best way. Is this person a professional in his field? 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 a field of competence, which is limited by the 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 for their practical application. There is a world classifier of professions that gives their description - there are more than nine thousand items in it. In Russia, such a document contains seven thousand titles.

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

Levels of mastering the subject area

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

Professional activities are certain stages in the development of a specialist in the subject field. The specialty can be obtained in educational institutions of different 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 academic hours and confirmed by the results of verification in a test or exam form. The specialty presupposes the availability of a sufficient amount of knowledge for practical application in the professional sphere of production.

Specialist, Professional, Expert

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

A specialist, professional, expert is the stage 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 their field. The ethical component is also a significant indicator of the quality of a specialist. This is especially true of humanitarian, aimed at serving the person areas of professional activity.

Code of Ethics - a set of rules, the observance of which is a prerequisite for belonging to a professional environment. It contains standards as categorical requirements for the performance of functions by a specialist.

There are a number of professions for which compliance with the rules of ethics is mandatory. These are areas of professional activity that somehow affect the life of a particular person. First of all - medicine, jurisprudence, state security, education.

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

Service ministry

A field of knowledge such as the psychology of professional activity suggests that service is often the highest value of a person. This is evidenced by numerous evidence of fidelity to duty. Sometimes a doctor is ready to find a way to cure a serious illness at the cost of his life.

Optional sacrificial heroism is a measure of professional duty. The Great Mechnikov made a number of discoveries during his life in the field of medicine, thanks to which prospects were opened for the creation of drugs that help people defeat death. His whole life is an example of ethical service to the people.

The writer Solzhenitsyn Alexander Isaevich was able, under the most severe censorship and punishment for free expression of his civil position, not to change his principles.

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

The works “The Gulag Archipelago”, “Cancer Corps”, “One Day of Ivan Denisovich” give an assessment of historical realities through the look of a witness of that era.

These are living examples of serving the profession, leaving humanity an invaluable result, the social effect of which cannot be evaluated.

The future is for professionals

In order to understand in what professional environment it is possible to reveal your abilities in the best way, it is important to timely recognize your need for society. Assess the need for your personal resource and capabilities.

Therefore, the choice of a professional path is one of the most important educational tasks of the education system as a whole.

In educational institutions, the discipline "professional self-determination of students" is officially introduced. Its subject is the study of the world of professions, especially professional activities. 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 the side of society. The corresponding will be his social reward. It is in this situation that they say about a person "he is in his place."