There's a lot of good ideas there, but I don't think it's a cure-all solution either. For example, I've had my own run-ins with "professional associations". They have a tendency to be more interested in protecting their membership and promoting their professions than in helping the consumer or policing their members. There's a lot of turf wars going on in that field, and they do a lot of lobbying for self-serving reasons.

I fought (and lost) a 5 year battle with one of the associations in my profession because I could see that their scheme to institute a practitioner competency certificate was just an attempt to divide and conquer the workforce by creating a two-tier salary system. People without a certificate could still work, but at a lower salary, while the guy swinging the seal in the office could command more money. The certification process protected established careers by restricting membership, and if you wanted to play, you had to pay. Workers would have to go to the trouble and the expense to get certified, relieving the employers of the need (and expense) of properly vetting job candidates. The universities signed up with the program because they could help administer the training using hostage grad student labor and state subsidized facilities and equipment. There is money to be made in training materials, classes, etc. too. It's a great little racket for everyone except the certified tech, he just needs to shell out the cash and jump through the hoops if he wants his career to go anywhere.

It also gave the certifying association the capability to set up a great little money-making sideline passing out these diplomas, and they even secretly marketed the idea to the industry by offering certification "points" to their conference attendees, thereby attracting more people to their meetings and making it more attractive to paying exhibitors. It was shameless, they were shaking down techs in the field by forcing them to shell out money for this sheepskin in order to improve their own hireability while simultaneously extorting cash from the industry by using these new attendees as a means of jacking up the cost of setting up a booth or attending a conference. Now they have an office full of parasites who do nothing but administer this scheme.

And eventually, we'll need accreditation associations for the certification providers, a whole new dimension of bullshit. Hey, it ain't just the government that loves bureaucracy.

I fought it tooth and nail, by speaking at conferences, leading round tables and panel discussions, and publishing articles in the trade press. I was even cited in several articles by others. I even gathered some of the heavyweights in academia and the industry to back me up.

But the SOBs finally defeated us by offering a sweetheart grandfather clause to make it easy for established old-timers in the field (like me) to get certificates with a minimum of hassle. Seduced, my allies melted away and I was on my own. Of course, I told them to take their grandfather clause and stuff it. But without a certificate, I doubt I could get hired now anywhere in the country into my current position, in spite of a Masters and 35 years professional experience.

To this day, I still get the occasional email or meet someone at a conference thanking me for my effort, and fully agreeing with my position, but apologizing for the fact they were forced to go through the certification process in order to feed their families. No, the transition zone where industry, government and academia overlap is no paradise of competitive virtue either. It's just more guys in suits looking for a free ride.