2000, Bermuda College president Dr. George Cook told Hamilton Lions at their luncheon this week.

He based the prediction on comments made by speakers at a series of public forums held this week by the college's 20-member planning team.

It was predicted there would be more job losses in the tourism industry. The construction industry would never again see the boom it experienced in the 1980s.

And, according to members of the International Companies division of Chamber of Commerce, entry-level, mid-management and secretarial jobs in the international business sector would be nearly wiped out by 2000.

Dr. Cook further noted it had been revealed during one of the forums that 2,770 jobs had been lost between 1988 and 1992.

These job trends coupled with Bermuda's "significantly aging population'' show an urgent need for the college to increase its programmes for the retraining of adults, Dr. Cook said.

Their skills needed to be upgraded and freshened, he said.

The college must offer more business management courses and opportunities for on-the-job training as part of a student's curriculum.

And programmes need to be expanded to higher levels, he said.

Dr. Cook pointed out speaker Rev. Harlyn Purdy was so concerned about the potential impact of the AIDS crisis that he believed its combat would mean fewer resources to devote to education and training abroad.

He told Lions that another speaker, Mrs. Gail Gorman of the COC, had said the workforce in the year 2000 would call for people with strong communication and computer skills, an understanding of the international business world and command of a second language.

"The implications of these messages are clear,'' Dr. Cook said. "The best asset that a young person can have in this world of change is the best general education that one can get, because it is that which will most enable people to adapt to change.

The College's planning team, chaired by the Chief Justice the Hon. Sir James Astwood, is made up of business, education and community leaders and is charged with "seeing the college into the 21st Century''.

Dr. Cook said he anticipated the team will have formulated a plan to present to the College's Board of Governors by July.