Deb's story
Deb Guntrip is a Literacy Numeracy Specialist Teacher at TasTAFE who works with employees from a number of organisations to lift reading, writing, spelling and maths skills.
Currently, she is working with the West Tamar Council supported by 26Ten Workplace Grants to these two organisations. She says that continuing to learn in the workplace is vital in these modern times.
“Increasing use of technology and other changes at work mean that many Tasmanians find their literacy and numeracy skills are not keeping up,” she said.
“26Ten provides grants to employers so they can enlist someone like me to go into their workplaces to boost the literacy and numeracy skills of their employees.”
She went on to say, “the people I work with have wonderful skills, but less formal education. They are apprehensive about their ability to learn, so when I work with them one-on-one, I take away the fear by showing them the strategies we all use to read, write and spell.”
“Often people just need a couple of sessions with me to know they are on the right track and can continue to build their skills on their own. Others need a little more help and make good progress, especially when they put in effort in their own time too. It’s great for them and great for the workplace as they are more confident to do things like send emails and follow new task directions.”
Adult literacy is not only changing the lives of people Deb’s working with, but it’s also impacted her life. “It’s great to do work that makes a difference and when I hear stories of how people are confident, can problem solve at work and read to their children, it’s very satisfying.”
More success stories:
Writing in plain English at Houston's Farm
"It's also given us another opportunity to talk about plain English generally, and what that means to the business, and to emphasise that gone are the days that you need to use long words and complicated sentences in a business-related document. The theme is always keep it simple and transfer the message as clearly as possible."
Maree uses resourcefulness and determination to address her literacy challenges
"I’m getting there. I’m not down here anymore… but I want to get up the top. It might take me six, twelve months… but I don’t care. As long as I get to where I want to go.”
