I'd just written a rather long and blathering posts about the ins and outs of how licensing could work, but as I got to my final point I realised that actually NO, I don't believe licensing would work. Wanna know why?
Just look at driving licenses. I don't know about anyone else but I know plenty (in fact, TOO many) drivers on the roads who hold a license and yet are the most goddamn irresponsible, no, DANGEROUS drivers I have ever met.
And yet according to our licensing laws, they are free to drive around on our roads because for 45 minutes one day they managed to convince a driving examiner that they could drive OK.
My point is that anyone could pass a nail licensing exam but it doesn't make them a good tech - they could just as easily throw all their knowledge by the wayside in day-to-day working, for the sake of speed, profit or just laziness. And yet they'd have their license and so, by all intents and purposes, would be perfectly entitled to do so.
The only way licensing would work is with a mass of inspectors going around doing random, 'secret shopper' spot tests to catch them out!
No, I believe that the only true way to ensure a better standard in our industry is to educate the customer, as it is their money that ultimately stops these NSSs from closing. Whilst there will always be some people who are too cheap or too blase about things to care one way or the other, if we could only EDUCATE the general public about what they should expect from a good salon, they would let their feet doing the talking, and at least some of these shoddy salons would shut down from lack of trade.
The problem is that whilst most people know the difference between a good shampoo and someone burning their neck with a pair of curling tongs (and some people still put up with that), not many people really know what constitutes good nail practise, and until they do, they will continue to keep these bad salons in business, and I don't think there's anything a piece of paper could do to stop it.
Just my 2 pence's worth!