A profession is a job that involves complex work, education, training, and certifications. Professions are usually intellectual and require a university degree. Some examples of professions include: Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Economists, Professors, Teachers, Librarians, Architects.
A trade is a manual job that requires special training. Tradespeople are trained in a particular trade that often uses physical skill and dexterity. Trade includes buying and selling, which also includes imports and exports.
An industry is a group of companies and organizations that work on similar things. An industry can also refer to the market for something, or how well things are selling. Some examples of industries include: Textile, Hedge fund, Investment bank
To distinguish between a profession, a trade, and an industry, it’s important to understand the characteristics and criteria that define each. Let’s break down these concepts:
Profession
Education and Training: Professions typically require extensive and specialized education, often at a college or university level. This education is not just about practical skills but also theoretical knowledge.
Certification and Licensing: Professionals are usually required to be certified or licensed by a professional body or government agency. This ensures that practitioners meet certain standards of competence and ethics.
Autonomy and Responsibility: Professionals generally have a high degree of autonomy in their work and are responsible for their own actions. They are also accountable to their professional body for maintaining standards.
Ethical Standards: Professions are governed by codes of ethics, which set out the standards of conduct expected of practitioners. These codes are enforced by professional bodies.
Commitment to Public Interest: There is often an expectation that professionals will work in the best interest of the public or their clients, sometimes even above their own interests.
Continued Professional Development: Professionals are expected to engage in lifelong learning and keep up to date with advancements in their field.
Trade
Skill Focus: Trades focus more on practical, hands-on skills and less on theoretical knowledge. Training is often done through apprenticeships or vocational training programs.
Certification: While certification can be important, it’s often more about demonstrating skill proficiency than adhering to a set of ethical standards.
Regulation: Trades can be regulated, but this is often more about safety and skill standards than professional conduct.
Industry
Economic Activity: An industry refers to a group of companies or businesses that produce a particular type of goods or services. It’s a broader term that encompasses both trades and professions within a particular sector.
Variety of Roles: An industry can include a variety of roles, from manual labor to management, and doesn’t necessarily imply a specific level of training or education.
Market and Consumer Focus: Industries are primarily focused on the production and market dynamics, responding to consumer demand and economic trends.
Is Massage a Profession, Industry or Trade?
The massage therapy profession has already undergone much of this transition and some states are ahead of others in becoming a profession. The field has working to create educational standards (AMTA, ABMP, AFMTE), certification processes (NCBTMB), and professional bodies (AMTA, ABMP) to oversee practice and ethics. This distinguishes it from a trade focused more on specific skills and less on a broader ethical or educational framework. But we are not quite there yet.
In the 2008, the White Paper On Becoming a Profession: The Challenges and Choices that will Determine Our Future by Rick Rosen, MA, LMBT wrote: “
“We need to move forward together if we
want to become a full-fledged profession. Here are the action steps that will get us there:
- Establish a Body of Knowledge – We did that, but it has not been used or updated.
- Improve the quality of massage therapy education – The AFMTE is working on that as well as ABMP
- Reorganize the credentialing process by putting licensure before certification – We did that the opposite way but may be back on track with the NCBTMB moving to Board Certification and the FSMTB working on licensing and AMTA/ABMP also working for more consistent language in licensing.
- Create parity among our state massage laws to increase portability – Ooops… working on it but sooo slow…
- Develop and promote a unified professional identity – Still far apart. Who are we?
- Use lessons learned from other professions – not sure where we are at with that.
Back in 2009, Rick Rosen wrote an article The Structure of a Profession: Where Does Massage Therapy Stand Today? on what it takes to become a profession. He stated:
While each mature profession has its own developmental history, culture, and methods of operation, there are six basic components that are common to all. These are:
1) Membership Association – We have two main associations – American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA, not for profit) and Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP). Having two main associations may have split up the profession too much making it more difficult to progress as a profession.
2) Independent Organization of Colleges or Schools – Alliance of Massage Education (AFMTE)
3) Accrediting Commission – Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA)
4)Federation of State Licensing Boards – Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB)
5) Specialty Certification Boards – National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB)
6) Research Center – Massage Therapy Foundation (MTF)