The article elaborates and discusses the relation between professional college programmes in social work, nursing and primary school teaching and professional work in institutions, hospitals and schools. Empirical data from bachelor students in the beginning (first year) and the end (third year) of their programmes and from candidates three years after finishing college are analysed. Data from the three different professions are compared. The discussion focuses on why academic knowledge is valued relatively low in some of the professions and why it seems to be a gap between what competence professional workers need in their practice and what they have acquired in their college education. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures, and 3 notes.)