> They are cleaning your teeth. This means that they need to have understanding of hygiene and sterilization. There are regularly incidents where someone in a d

> They are cleaning your teeth. This means that they need to have understanding of hygiene and sterilization. There are regularly incidents where someone in a dentists office sterilizes something wrong and some disease gets transmitted. And there always will be, regardless of how many years of college the staff has. > Do NOT assume that nurses, hygienists, etc. understand things even as basic as germ theory and its implications. Do NOT assume that laypeople understand just how bad industrial chemicals can be. etc. If nurses don't understand these things and they have had many years of training, that seems to argue that additional training does not improve outcomes. And for the record, I'm not saying I want Joe Blow to be hired yesterday and start cleaning teeth today. A trade training program is of course necessary to acquire the skills and learn the procedures to perform <skilled job>. But I don't think it's necessary to have college-level germ theory background to understand how to sterilize equipment and why it's important. > A 2 year degree barely teaches enough for people to be functional in jobs that can affect someone else's health. I won't disagree there, because I think college is pretty useless these days other than to give you the piece of paper that lets companies easily filter potential employees, with non-college applicants going in the trash. > The solution to a lack of people for <job> is to PAY MORE MONEY. Why does this seem to be so hard for people to understand? I agree with you that companies have taken advantage of employees for a very long time and am glad that workers are pushing back on low wages and unreasonable employment situations. But if we keep requiring more credentialing at high expense that people simply cannot afford without crippling loans, you can't fix that with higher wages. The result would be that teeth cleaning would become unaffordable to the average person. Oh wait, I know the solution to that: more insurance! (See: medical care)