Opinion: cautions against weakening professional licensing requirements
Date postedSeptember 6, 2023
While acknowledging that some elements of the occupational licensing process could be evaluated to eliminate unnecessary barriers, this article cautions that "care must be taken to ensure that critical licensing systems for [technical] professions, designed to ensure public and economic protection, are not compromised and swept up in broad-brush calls for occupational licensing reform." A recent study for the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing found that "92 percent of businesses agreed that licensing plays a crucial role in accurately assessing qualifications and making confident hiring decisions; 85 percent said they would have less confidence in the competence of professionals if licensing were downgraded."