Research On The Professionality Of Information Profession And Information Professional Certification System

With the rapid development of information society, there are a large group of information professionals in the society. The demand for information professionals is growing. Information profession belongs to an emerging area of research. There is no clear definition or demonstration of information profession and its professionality. To prove information profession is a kind of professional occupation, which is similar to accountants, lawyers, architects and so on, both for the education of information science and information professional certification, are of great significance.This paper gives the definition of information profession, then investigates the International Standard Classification of Occupations and the occupational classification of USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and China, uses the keywords analysis to count and analyze the duties and tasks of the professions which accord with the supposion, demonstrates that these professions have the same object, duties, tasks and target with the definition of information profession, then summarizes information profession's position and attributes.This paper summarizes academic standards on the definition of professional occupation, and analyzes the professional occupation in occupational classification, indicates that professional occupation should have three core criteria:has professional knowledge and professional skills in specific area; has the professional autonomy; has specific and irreplaceable social function. By judging information profession with these three core criteria, this paper concludes:information profession is professional occupation.To meet the specialized requirements of information professionals, this paper advises the education of information science can take the model of professional degree education. According to the characteristics of information science and other similar professional degree education, developing professional degree education of information science is not only necessary but also feasible. This paper proposes a concrete action plan. For professional occupations, professional certification is necessary. Combined with the experience of information professional certification in developed countries and other professional occupations, this paper proposes a project of constructing the system of information professional certification in our country.The innovations of this paper are listed as follows:Firstly, despite the growing demand for professional information of society, there is a lack of clear understanding of information profession. The visual angle of this paper is unique. Based on the research of the International Standard Classification of Occupations and many country's occupational classifications, this paper analyzes the duties and tasks of information professions, and summarizes information profession's position and attributes, establishes a basis of the following research.Secondly, despite information science education and professional certification are hotspots, the professionality of information profession has not been fully realized. Based on the statistical and analytical research on occupational classifications, this paper concludes that is information profession is professional occupation, which is similar to accountants, lawyers, architects, so as to make the advice of information science education and information professional certification in the right direction.Thirdly, this paper highlights the connection of professional degree education and professional certification, and combines with the experience of developed countries and other professional occupations, proposes a project of constructing the system of information professional certification in our country.