Bob Murphey had previously employed various strategies to deal with report writing including using the first letter of each word as a shorthand (W for window, B for broken) as well as reliance on his line manager. The course allowed him to undertake his job with greater self-sufficiency. “It makes me feel really good, cos now I can fill in forms and write down what flats and all that, what problems are going on in the flats. Now I don’t have to keep sneaking around to find someone else to keep spelling it for me, I can try and have a go at it myself.”

During a follow-up interview in 2007 Bob Murphey revealed that he had also taken on more responsibility as a care-taker (whereas previously he had been more involved in cleaning) and had undertaken further computer courses at the learning centre which facilitated his use of email to communicate with his partner in Brazil. He now felt more confident about filling in evaluation forms as part of training sessions.

Abdul Nazif provided a less sanguine view of the capacity of one course to make a substantial impact on working practices: “putting something good into something that’s spoilt for so long its not going to make it right, so much damage already, Malcolm (the tutor) did a great deal of work on me, but it didn’t really put the picture right.” Yet, Abdul Nazif underlined the significance of improving his literacy skills in order to fulfill his goals of gaining promotion: “I wanted to better my position at work, cos I don’t always want to be doing manual work they’re talking about a supervisors job now for me, and you find that most of it where… 40% of it officially is paperwork.” Abdul had recently developed informal, selfstudy techniques in recognition of the importance of developing his literacy skills: “I’ve adapted at work lately a little notebook which I write down all the incidents down and I’m getting really in to that, because its like identifying problems and putting it down, expressing myself and dates and time and all that.”