Introduction:Young people who completed their education and want to find a job often face the problem of employment. Employment as recognition of their work and efforts at the time of their schooling enables them to gain independence and realize their goals. Laboratory dental prosthetics is a specific area of dental profession which requires, accordingly, qualified labour. Purpose:The purpose of this diploma thesis is to present employability in dental laboratories in Slovenia, their staffing in view of gender, age and education. Furthermore, we wanted to research what laboratory dental practitioners employers in dental laboratories would prefer to engage. We were also interested in the number of vacancies for dental practitioners and the number of unemployed dental practitioners. Besides, we wanted to find out what views the students of the final grades of the secondary dental technical school hold on further education and employment. Methods: In the theoretical part of the thesis a descriptive method was used. The major source of information was technical literature in various scientific and professional journals, books and publicly accessible database. In the research part the survey method was used. We interviewed the final grade students of the secondary dental technical school and fifty randomly selected employers in dental laboratories in the Republic of Slovenia. In the practical part we made removable aligners for orthodontic treatment. Results: The results of the survey show that the majority of dental practitioners in dental laboratories are female dental technicians, aged above 50. All those who employ dental technicians and graduates in laboratory dental prosthetics estimate that the latter have better knowledge (except practical knowledge) and better attitude to work, colleagues and clients. According to respondents new technologies will not significantly affect the reduction of the employed in dental laboratories. When hiring new practitioners the equal number of employers would engage dental technicians and graduate laboratory dental prosthetists. The survey among the final grade students of the secondary dental technical school showed that only 34% of them are planning to continue their study at the Faculty of Health Sciences in the programme Laboratory Dental Prosthetics, where they expect more practical work and better employment opportunities. In their opinion new technologies will result in the decrease of the staff number in laboratories. Debate and conclusion: Given the results it can be concluded that the great majority of dental technicians and graduate laboratory dental practitioners are employed in their field of work. The fact is that only about 40% of all the final grade students of the secondary dental technical school stay in their profession and once their secondary education completed, they also seek employment in their field. If we wanted to increase the interest of employers in engaging more graduates in laboratory dental prosthetics, we should consider a change in the curriculum towards the increase of number of hours for practical training not only at the faculty but with employers as well.
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