You are saying that we should make people go through a "trades" sequence but a two year Associate's Degree takes fewer hours. https://www.mesacc.edu/sites/defa

You are saying that we should make people go through a "trades" sequence but a two year Associate's Degree takes fewer hours. https://www.mesacc.edu/sites/default/files/pages/academic-departments/allied-health/dental-hygiene/Dental%20Hygiene.curriculum.pdf https://www.mesacc.edu/sites/default/files/pages/academic-de... https://www.mesacc.edu/sites/default/files/pages/academic-departments/allied-health/dental-hygiene/ProgramCost.pdf https://www.mesacc.edu/sites/default/files/pages/academic-de... Program cost is 2 years and about $20K. The only difference between this and, say, the electrical apprentice/journeyman/master path is that a company will pay for you starting at the journeyman point. Which is good because you have to do 8000 hours (4 years!) to become a full-fledged journeyman. So, again, we come back to companies simply aren't paying enough money. I know several tech companies that fund local community college program scholarships simply to get their output. It's a rounding error on their "community outreach" budget (somthing like $1000 a student for <20 students).