However, a Masters course counteracted this effect by encouraging Denise to think
for herself more.
6.6 Problem-solving skills
Dale explains how learning plumbing at college, and self-taught learning using a
manual to mend cars, has taught him an approach to problem-solving that combines
patience, perseverance and a logical approach.
“ It [working on boilers at college] helped me to be more patient when I’m
working with boilers because it takes time. You know you have to take time. ... It
teaches you patience. ”
From using a commonly used manual to mend cars, Dale has learnt a logical approach
to problem-solving, which he applies to mending boilers also.
“ First time I worked on a car was my own car. I was in the middle of nowhere
when it broke down. I didn’t have a clue. ... So I’m rooting through it [a basic
manual]. ‘Check this, check this, check this’ and I suppose that’s where it came
from. He told you where to start checking and work your way back. And I’ve
always done it the same way. ”
This is a nice example of a transferable skill, to be set alongside Lydia’s skill,
acquired through learning to teach dances, of handling family matters (see Section
10).
6.7 Knowledge sources
Education enables respondents to acquire knowledge, through enabling them to read,
through inclining them to read for information, and through providing access to books
and other forms of information. This helped a number of respondents to cope with
difficult circumstances.
Gamal’s formal human capital has given him the capacity and the confidence to
mobilise knowledge, and his membership of the institutions through which this was
gained gave him access to physical stocks of knowledge. His learning had helped him
tackle health problems, both in respect of his wife and in bringing up his child in a
healthy fashion:
Gamal: “ They [the first years ofparenting] were difficult. I didn’t have any
experience about raising children at all and I didn’t get any help from anybody.
The Social Services didn’t help, nobody helped, you know. It was terribly hard
with the child, ‘He is yours, you look after him’, and that was that, really. ”
Interviewer: “ Okay. So how did you cope? ”
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