Train enthusiast Paul joins Pacific National as a Strategic Planner after featuring in the ABC documentary Employable Me
Image: Paul White visits the Life Without Barriers office in Newcastle
Paul White was thrilled to receive the call from Pacific National, Australia’s largest private rail freight operator, to see if he wanted to join their team. Paul is a client of Life Without Barriers and had been looking for a job that would suit his unique skill set for quite some time.
Paul was recently featured in the ABC documentary Employable Me, as one of nine jobseekers with disability. The program aimed to dispel many of the myths around the capabilities of people with disability.
Image: Paul appeared on the ABC documentary Employable Me
If you saw Paul in Employable Me you would know Paul loves trains. Trains have always been in Paul’s family with his grandfather working on Sydney railways many years ago and his other grandfather’s model train set igniting Paul’s interest in trains while he was young.
Paul’s passion for trains has now grown into a vocation, with both his new job at Pacific National as a Strategic Planner and in filming, editing and sharing his train videos via his popular Youtube Channel Paul’s Train Vlogs which has over 2000 subscribers.
Paul was thrilled to be featured on Employable Me as it led to many opportunities for him. “I did work experience with Sydney Trains in the lost property office and I sure did enjoy it, I got to see behind the scenes of two control rooms at Central Station in Sydney,” said Paul.
"Now with my new job I’ll be sending out the itinerary for coal movements each day for Pacific National.”
His new role is a perfect fit for Paul’s skills as he has a meticulous memory and uncanny ability to recall train makes, models and timetables.
Appearing on the program also opened up Paul’s world socially. He was able to meet the other participants and has since built lasting friendships with a number of them. He travels up to the Central Coast (via train of course!) regularly to attend a social group with some of his new friends.
The Life Without Barriers Media and Communications team were also thrilled to meet Paul recently when he visited the Newcastle Office for some work experience where he spent time with the team creating animated graphics to take his train vlogs to the next level.
Image: Paul with Life Without Barrier's graphic designer Dom Freestone, learning new animation skills
Paul shared with the team how excited he is to be starting his new role shortly. When asked if he would like to work from home as some of his friends from Employable Me do, he said he doesn’t think so. “I’m happy going into the office because I have a multi-million dollar fleet to oversee and I get to go to work every day on the train”. We are delighted Paul has found the perfect job for him.
