Social Capital and Adult Learning

I had a chance to speak to a classmate about social capital the other day. It was an interesting discussion about the concept of social capital and adult learning. 

When we talked I thought about several of the classes that we provide in our learning community. When he discussed social capital as an outcome I especially sat up and took notice. I thought about how different people and learners in our community utilize and gain social capital, particularly when it’s an expected outcome of training. 

One class came to mind. We provide training for many different skills and crafts. There are crane and rigging courses, fall protection courses, hazardous waste clean-up courses, and industrial cleaning courses. 

Each of these have their own brand of social capital for the respective learners, but between them, if someone from outside that skill or craft comes in, there is none. I thought about the industrial cleaning course specifically, Within their craft, this training does provide capital as an outcome for those within the course, and those are within that craft. If I took it, it would provide none, in fact, less than none. 

I find it interesting that there are these pockets of courses where social capital as an outcome can be granted, and where the marginalized groups are those without the craft, not necessarily the groups that you might expect from seeing the community from outside.