Since upskilling with Education Unlimited recently, Wayne’s life has been transformed. Now, not only is he enjoying books for the first time, but he’s also reading maps, writing letters and texting on his phone with confidence and finesse.

“The training was really beneficial for me. It has helped me a lot in my job, and also just in life generally, so I’m wrapped,” says the valued St Vincent de Paul employee.

Earlier this year Wayne and a group of his colleagues completed Education Unlimited’s ‘Skills Values Develop Programme’, a bespoke training course designed to help St Vincent de Paul’s staff adapt to the organisation’s changing needs. The 10-week programme covered everything from communication and digital literacy to workplace wellbeing, health and safety and financial literacy – and it opened the door for Wayne to undertake a series of one-on-one training sessions with Education Unlimited programme facilitator and coordinator Jenna Paton.

“We noticed that Wayne could use a little additional support with reading comprehension and digital literacy, and we were able to give him 20 hours of one-on-one training,” says Jenna.

“Our sessions focused on understanding punctuation, and finding key words to help him draw meaning from the book he was reading.”

It had a big impact. Wayne improved his reading score from Step 2 to Step 3 (“which is a great achievement, and one he’s super proud of”) and – for the first time ever - he started visualising pictures in his mind as the story he was reading unfolded.

“That was my biggest highlight,” says Jenna. “He could imagine the characters, where they were and what they were doing. He didn’t realise that could happen when you read, and each time he’d come to class he’d fill me in on what was happening in the story, and we’d talk about it.”

For Wayne, the revelation that reading could be fun and exciting was a lightbulb moment.

“For the first time, I actually enjoyed reading a story,” he says. “I kept wanting to read more to find out what would happen next. I used to just flick through books, look at the pictures and never get the gist, but Jenna taught me to read sentences twice so that the words sink in. She taught me to take my time and enjoy the story, and I really enjoy reading now.”

Jenna also taught Wayne about punctuation, and helped him navigate all the functions on his new mobile phone.

“I never used to use any full stops, commas or capital letters in my texts and emails. I’d just type away without any punctuation! Now my writing is much more professional, and I can do things like mapping on my phone.”

Knowing how to read Google maps on his phone has been a gamechanger for Wayne, who as part of the Vinnies Logistics team, is often out and about in the community doing pick-ups and deliveries. Boosting his digital skills has also been invaluable.

“It’s all going digital – nothing will be pen to paper anymore – so now I know what to do.”

Building skills for our rapidly changing world is not always a cakewalk, but as Wayne attests, it’s well worth putting in the effort.

“These new skills will really help me at work, which is a good thing because I’m not planning on retiring any time soon! But even more importantly, they are skills for life – and that’s the part I’m most wrapped about.”

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