A virtual course teaching students all about launching their own businesses is coming to the Berkeley Institute, supported by some of the island’s top companies.

Berkeley students will learn from senior business heads, honing their work and life skills, through the Virtual Enterprise International programme, which will teach areas such as sales, marketing, finance, administrative, leadership and presentation skills.

The VEI programme, under way across the United States and in 40 countries around the world, brings students the mentorship of established business professionals. Berkeley’s initiative has the backing of the Association of Bermuda International Companies, in partnership with member companies XL Catlin, KPMG, FIL and Bacardi.

The Berkeley programmed was introduced by Mark A. Smith of Bacardi International, who had served as a VEI mentor in New York.

School principal Phyllis Curtis-Tweed, who visited a New York virtual class, said the programme would help develop a new generation of business professionals.

Business partners were given their own mentoring workshop at the Berkeley Institute on September 12.

ABIC and its partners see it as an opportunity for their organisations to build long-term links with the Berkeley Institute, according to its executive director, Richard Winchell.

For more information on the VEI programme go to https://veinternational.org/