03 Dec Callers from the workforce
People are often surprised that many callers to the Hotline are employed. Over the last two years around 40 percent of callers are working either full time (around 25%), part-time/ casual (around 12%) or self-employed. Why do they call us?
People who are employed represent a continuum of literacy and numeracy needs and often want to improve their skills to either maintain their current position, the demands of which have increased, or move to other work.
Steve
Steve is typical of many of our callers. He’s in his mid-forties and has been in the workforce for many years. His reading and writing skills have always been sufficient for his job but now they are not enough. Sometimes he is asked to read things out loud which is his worst nightmare. Additionally, a worksite injury now prevents him from working ‘on the tools.’ He wants to do a course so he can be promoted to middle management.
Maria
Maria thinks she has undiagnosed dyslexia and struggles with spelling. She has found reading a lot has really helped but her spelling still needs work. Maria has completed a Certificate III in Aged Care (with support from her employer) and Certificate III in Individual Support. She said she needed lots of help because she struggled to keep up.
Maria works part time in care work and wants to improve her reading and writing so she can move into an office job. She is interested in seeing if she can do LLN at a TAFE or community college and would also like a volunteer tutor to give her the kind of individual help she really needs.