Are you prepared to join Paul Kearns and declare the Learning Professional's Oath? If you are, then please add your name and comment at the end of this article.
"I swear to always endeavour, to the best of my ability and judgment, to help organisations and individuals learn what they need to know to advance themselves and the goals of their organisation.
"I will not offer prescriptions without a proper diagnosis and I will always search for evidence that my methods have had the desired effect and impact.
"I will respect any hard won lessons of those learning specialists in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
"I will remember that there is art to learning as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh any purely scientific, cold logic or analysis.
"I will also remember that I can only treat individual human beings, whose ability to learn may affect their family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for those who need to learn.
"I will always remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings.
"I will not be ashamed to say 'I know not', nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for an organisational or employee benefit.
"Prevention is always preferable to cure so I will always endeavour to help employees to learn today to avoid the problems of tomorrow.
"If I do not violate this oath, may I long enjoy life and art, and be respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of seeing people learn, especially those who have sought my help."
I hope Hippocrates will forgive me and I welcome any suggested amendments and any other ideas that will help us all to have our chosen calling in life regarded as a true profession and taken as seriously as it deserves to be.
To read Paul Kearn's series The 21st Century learning professional, click on the headlines below:
Paul Kearn's oath is adapted from a modern version of the Hippocratic oath for the medical profession, written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, academic dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, and used in many medical schools today. See www.pbs.org Paul Kearns specialises in measuring the value of the human contribution to organisational success and teaches real evaluation around the world. He is the author of the CIPD's best selling 'Evaluating the ROI from Learning' and has campaigned for many years to raise professional standards.
Visit www.paulkearns.co.uk
