I agree wholeheartedly with K Morland's letter ‘Stop helping those who don't help themselves' (The Weekend Sun, May 16).

In 1992-1993 I was on the benefit and Community TaskForce computer-cataloging library books at two Christchurch schools.

In 1994 I tried and failed to find paid work, so decided to teach myself computing.
I bought and read books like CJ Date's ‘An Introduction to Database Systems', Elmasri and Navathe's ‘Fundamentals of Database Systems' and Tanenbaum's ‘Operating Systems: Design and implementation'.

The ICT industry was complaining of a skills shortage in network administrators, so I approached a private training institute to learn more about the network administrator's course.

I approached my bank: no loan until I had a signed statement from a prospective employer that they'd employ me.

So I approached the private employment agency, which supervises the exams.
They sent me to an agency specialising in network admins. The secretary told me I'd be wasting my time - employers wouldn't hire me without experience, even with the qualification.

And they give me experience as an intern. I'd done everything according to the ideological rules of the business round table, which state ‘Public' equals ‘Bad', and ‘Private' equals ‘Good' in that I'd shown personal initiative in learning tertiary-level computer science without aid of a tertiary institution.

This necessitated diversion of taxpayer money from my table to my personal library.
The business community, which was espousing this ideology, proved incapable of walking the talk.

Instead, I got the impression ‘God helps those who help themselves, but we prosecute'.

W Parish, Bellevue