Greenacres recently celebrated the graduation of 25 supported employees who completed WEA courses.These included 10-week long courses in cooking and literacy and numeracy as well as Certificate I in IT and Certificate II in Business courses which took nearly a year to complete.

Greenacres Learning and Development Coordinator, Lisa Hocking, said the courses developed a variety of foundation skills including money handling, budgeting, emailing, shopping and nutrition.

Courses like these ones from the WEA not only teach our participants new skills but also boost their confidence and self-esteem and can act as a gateway to further study or new employment opportunities, Lisa said.

Supported employee, Natalie Adams, was very proud to graduate with two certificates, one for cooking and one for IT.

I learnt to cook all kinds of meals when I did the cooking course, Natalie said.

I really love to cook at home with my Mum and tomorrow night I am going to try and cook Shepherd’s Pie,

I also found the IT course really interesting and useful “ I learnt to use email so now I can email my friends and my boyfriend!