There's no magic bullet for overnight literacy competence, but with these foundation skills already in place he can be stepping-stoned to higher levels relatively quickly.
As with many of his peers, his main immediate issue is lack of confidence in his own abilities. Once he's shown how to effectively harness his existing skills, he'll soon be motoring -- and enhanced self-confidence compounds quickly.
The main thing he's got going for him, however, is that he's already in a job.
It means he's got a sense of purpose; it means he's not only got money coming in every week but also the self-esteem that goes with it; it means he's learning new skills and is also exposed to both formal and informal mentors whose influence benefits him in other than just work-related areas.
And it means he can plan new career moves or take new opportunities from a position of strength.
With the young man in question, he's already feeling good enough about his new skills to try for an apprenticeship. For the school-age Kaikohe youths in trouble, their prospects of later moving into local employment are depressingly slim.
That's already the reality for many of their older siblings, cousins and friends -- often their only role models.
Recently there's been increased commitment from both Government and iwi agencies to ensure that youth -- if not employed -- are at least involved in some sort of training or further education.
Some of these agencies are doing sterling work, but these courses are often of limited duration and many students -- who struggle to learn in more formal situations anyway -- end up with course "burn-out", especially when they can't see prospects of a job at the end of it.
The local private sector hasn't got the capacity to absorb all these youngsters and even if they moved to bigger cities, their chances of cracking the job market would remain just as slim.
There needs to be a game-changing point of entry, and positive government-supported intervention is the only realistic answer in the rural localities.
Call them "job schemes" or whatever you like, but there need to be at least half-a-dozen options on the table for disengaged youth to move into.
The nature of the work activity is almost immaterial (although there are manifold worthy projects), their main purpose is as foundation level steps into the wider job market.
Even if it were only for three days a week, they would be paid for their hours and would be expected to assume the responsibilities that go with any paid job.
They would also be in a position to learn on the job in a manner that best suits this coterie -- namely, learning by hands-on doing in a supported situation, and there would be the opportunity to piggy-back literacy and numeracy skills.
Like the young man I dealt with, they would have a taste of the esteem-building, remuneration, mentoring, skill-building and team support that goes with actually being in work.
Cost?
A piddling trifle compared to the huge bottom-of-the-cliff costs of NOT doing it, with all the social grief attendant to the territory of the unpossessed.
