Is a classroom assistant classes as a professional job!

[tulpops]

If you were talking about a C/A or filling out a form, would you describe as being a professional job?

Sadly that's irrelevant, and I actually do the job.

As wonderful/ essential/ gard?working as they are, as PP have said, the definition of a professional is having professional qualifications.

The professional = qualification thing isn't true. Private school teachers & civil servants don't necessarily have relevant qualifications, but do count as professionals.

Electricians do need qualifications, but aren't professionals. A lot of it is snobbery.

Could you be a murderer in an Agatha Christie?.Do you work? You're probably in a profession.

Professions are where you need degree qualifications that lead on to professional qualifications and membership of a professional institute. i.e architects, engineers, lawyers, doctors

I don't know if this is about passport signing or not but this is the list of professionals on the Gov.uk website:

https://www.gov.uk/countersigning-passport-applications/accepted-occupations-for-countersignatories

Sadly, no! Very underrated, underpaid and horribly patronised job.

It's not a professional job (although some TAs turn out to be secretly qualified in professions such as Law, Engineering, Teaching). Digital forms usually have a section which includes Education as a sector, but if not it's generally in line with office work.

No

It doesn't make it a professional level job though.....

No. A professional job is where you pass an exam to be an approved person on a professional register.

See the list I posted above.

OP- What are the forms you are talking about??? The context will help here!

If the job has 'Assistant' in the title, its not a professional one, unless you are a newly qualified graduate.

Aren't Civil Servants only classed as professional above a certain grade? Private school teachers usually have undergraduate degrees.

No.

Most TA jobs where I’m from require the level 2 classroom assistant qualification now. So they do have a certificate and are qualified specifically for the role.

It requires qualifications doesn't it? So I'd say it's profession adjacent haha. Teaching, law and medicine. Those are the professions. So teaching assistant is closer to being a profession than, for eg, HR administrator or project manager or estate agent.

I recently asked a TA to sign a passport form and it was rejected by the passport office (I thought she was a teacher.)

No. Similar to paralegal, trainee accountant or HR assistant, etc.

When I did the Professional Skills Course during my training contract (solicitor), our tutor said that - in his opinion - there are only two professions: solicitor and doctor. His reasoning was that these are the only ones where you can be jailed for pretending to be qualified as one.

It’s an odd one as not very long ago it started out as a pot washing and gophering for the teacher job. But it has changed. I have seen adverts for ‘graduate teacher assistant’ (naturally on the same low or lower pay), and adverts that openly require teaching assistants to plan. Many are expected to cover classes, in both emergency illness situations and regular POA cover. All are also subjected to regular observations just like teachers and expected to hold up to professional standards - I don’t mean just conduct, but professional standards of competencies in the job. So yes, it should be regarded as a professional pathway and, of course, paid a damn sight more.

You will get a lot of teachers saying otherwise because a lot of them are invested in maintaining their superior social status by making others feel inferior rather than doing a better job (I speak as I find there, far too often).