Jules wrote:
I think that'll change. At the moment I think the skills aren't there in
the younger generation because they expect to be able to simply buy their
way out of any problems - but society seems to be moving slowly back
toward being a bit more frugal with the pennies, and folk are going to
want to do more and more stuff themselves as they can't afford to
pay for someone else to do it for them.

Possibly for DIY, but mass production has made it difficult for anything
portable. Why build yourself a magazine rack (the sort of thing that used
to be a school woodwork project) when you can buy one at Ikea for 4.99? You
can't even buy the wood for that. It only becomes worthwhile when it's
something bespoke (to fit a particular space, say), or is designed around
something you can't buy (eg a bit of driftwood found on the beach).

I tend to treat this as an anti-science: how you can take some cheap
mass-produced product and turn it into something else. (He says, typing this
over a wifi connection using a GBP1.20 Wilko kitchen sieve as reflector)

There may be some mileage in finding out if there is any demand
from 20-30 year olds to learn what their parents/schools didn't teach
them, and to become DIY enthusiasts. Years ago, I recall some DIY
stores doing classes in using various power tools. That sort of thing
no longer goes on as far as I know.

That would be good... otherwise it gets left to the local college, who
probably don't have the facilities.

B&Q et al do offer DVDs of 'how to tile' and that sort of thing, so they do
get involved to some minimal extent.

(On a similar line I'd be up for a course on something like 'advanced car
maintenance' - how to change the head gasket, rather than how to check the
oil which is what most colleges seem to offer)

Theo