Students will be able to do a foundation year at Bermuda College from September, enabling them to enter the first year of three- or four-year universities overseas, its president announced yesterday.

Duranda Greene said the college had also linked up with the Bermuda Insurance Institute to prepare students for professional accountancy examinations.

Dr Greene added: “In the fall we will be introducing a foundation year programme for students wishing to transfer to a three or four-year institution after completing one year at Bermuda College.

“This will serve as a great avenue for students to transition from high school to an overseas institution.

“To increase the career opportunities for our graduates, we will collaborate with the Bermuda Insurance Institute to review our insurance courses and link them to examinations leading to professional insurance designations offered by the CPCU insurance institutes.”

Dr Greene said the college will partner with Queen’s University industrial relations centre to offer its courses and programmes.

The college will also introduce an entrepreneurship concentration as part of its business and technical education programmes.

The news was announced by Dr Greene in a speech at Hamilton Rotarians yesterday.

Dr Greene said the college had adopted a new vision statement – ’transforming lives through innovative education’.

She added that, as a community-based college, it had to be “multifaceted” and that partnerships with other organisations and agencies were “critical”.

Dr Greene revealed that the Bermuda College Foundation had raised more than $5.5 million since its launch in October, 2019.

And she said the college had coped well during the pandemic and switched to remote classes “virtually overnight”.

Dr Greene added: “We are looking forward to welcoming our students back on campus for face-to-face classes in the fall after having most of our classes offered remotely over the past three semesters.

“Our tagline for the 2018-2023 strategic plan is ’delivering success’ and we’re well on our way to doing just that and even more.”