20th February 2006, 05:56 PM
I think we are getting into a confusion over two different uses of the term "specialist". On the one hand refering to a person with years of experience in a particular area and on the other to a person who requires specific skills in order to do a particular job.
I would consider field archaeologist/site assistant/what ever you want to call the job as a specialism in the second sense, it takes a particular set of skills that can't be learnt from and are not neccessary in any other job; although of course this takes time to develop into a specialism in the first sense.
To use an analogy with our friends in construction no one would expect a plumber to be good at laying bricks, but a newly qualified plumber won't neccessarily be as skilled as one with years of experience. And vice versa of course.
I would consider field archaeologist/site assistant/what ever you want to call the job as a specialism in the second sense, it takes a particular set of skills that can't be learnt from and are not neccessary in any other job; although of course this takes time to develop into a specialism in the first sense.
To use an analogy with our friends in construction no one would expect a plumber to be good at laying bricks, but a newly qualified plumber won't neccessarily be as skilled as one with years of experience. And vice versa of course.