Success Stories

Vilashni Nair is a self-described survivor. She is learning at Future Skills Academy to help others turn their lives around- like she did. “In 2019, I was in respite care after a complete mental breakdown and a suicide attempt that saw me admitted to Auckland Hospital,” Vilashni says. “Today I feel I got another chance at life and the starting point was being accepted to study at Future Skills Academy.”

Vilashni was born in Fiji where she studied medicine. In 1994, she moved to New Zealand before getting involved in property development. She owned and managed a rest home along with a boarding house. Soon after, she became a single parent and started studying mental health through distance learning.

“My own mental health deteriorated and I spent time either in respite care, in hospital or huddled under duvet covers at home,” she says. “My only reason to keep going on in life was my two boys.” But Vilashni persevered to study beauty therapy and open her own spa, which she ran for five years.

Life took a nasty turn again and she found herself forced to sell the business. She focussed on her sons who were preparing for university and after a year’s break changed careers to become an international flight attendant. While she delighted in flying, Vilashni reveals there was still a void inside her to finish the mental health studies.

April 4, 2020 marked “the darkest day in the life of a lot of flight attendants,” she says. The airline announced it was shutting down its New Zealand base due to border closures triggered by the global Covid-19 pandemic. “Suddenly I was without a job or a career. I had the choice of either to sink into depression or to get up and seek a brand new career again.”

Vilashni then turned to the Mental Health and Addiction Support Level 4 programme at our Manukau campus. “Last year was the hardest year but it was through the great staff and peers at Future Skills Academy that I was able to do my course,” she says. “I love the fact that I had so much support all around me at campus. Even the managers are always available and just a phone call or a knock away.”

Future Skills Academy rekindled a love of learning which inspired her to study to become a Peer Support Specialist. Vilashni has also enrolled in a Te Reo Maori course and starts a Bachelor of Health Science in July.

While studying at Future Skills Academy, she gleaned a new job as a mental health support worker and a part-time role as a crisis counsellor with Lifeline. “It’s my way of helping people out there who are struggling alone because I know very well that the struggle is real. “The skills gained at Future Skills Academy enabled me to deal with every aspect of my work and my work environment.”