Licensure

Licensure means a restricted practice or a restriction on the use of an occupational title, requiring a license. A license created under a "practice act" requires a license before performing a certain activity, such as driving a car on public roads. A license created under a "title act" restricts the use of a given occupational title to licensees, but anyone can perform the activity itself under a less restricted title. For example, in Oregon, anyone can practice counseling, but only licensees can call themselves a "Licensed Professional Counselors."

Licenses are usually justified to regulate an activity whose incompetent execution would be threat to the public, such as surgery. For some occupations and professions, licensing is often granted through a professional body or a licensing board composed of practitioners who oversee the applications for licenses. This often involves accredited training and examinations, but varies a great deal for different activities and in different countries. Practicing without a license may carry civil or criminal penalties or may be perfectly legal.

Occupational licensing is inherently a form of restraint of trade. This can cause conflict with laws forbidding monopolistic practices if the licensing body favors its own licensees in ways that do not clearly protect the public. In the United States, state licensing boards have been successfully prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission for monopolistic activities.

In the USA and Canada, licensing (the term registration is sometimes used) is usually required by law to work in a particular profession or to obtain a privilege such as to drive a car or truck. Many other privileges and professions require a license, generally from the state or provincial government, in order to ensure that the public will not be harmed by the incompetence of the practitioners, and to limit supply to incumbent practitioners and thus increase wages.Actuarys, Architecture, insurance agents, Interior design, Landscape architecture, Engineering, General contractors, Financial analysts, Surveying, hedge fund mangagers, investment bankers, Licensed professional counselors, plumbers, Electricians, Physical Therapists, Real estate brokers, Nutritionists, Speech-Language Pathologists, Teachers, medical practitioners, nurses, lawyers, Private investigators, psychologists, geologists, social workers, Earth Science, School counselors, , and certified public accountants are some examples of professions that require licensure. Licensure is similar to professional certification, and sometimes synonymous (such as in the case with teacher licensure/certification); however, certification is an employment qualification and not a legal requirement for practicing a profession.

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