population is refusing to sit back and sulk.

Bermuda College Dean of Adult and Continuing Education, Mr. Peter Doyles reports that business courses are booming.

And Mr. Doyles believes the increasing numbers taking art and science courses are mainly seeking "background'' to improve their business qualifications.

But he admits that the college has had to battle against the recession to keep numbers up.

"Numbers of registrations had been increasing but then this year we saw a decrease,'' said Mr. Doyles. "In 1990/91 we had 3,894 registrations and I was hoping to pass 4,000 last year.

"But in 1991/92, the figure decreased by 4.9 percent to 3,703 registrations.

We contacted firms who would have been sponsoring students. They said they could not pay the fees because of lack of money.

"We asked them what the situation would be if they paid half now and half later. That increased the numbers, but in certain cases we were faced with companies who could not afford to pay so we had to look at our policy and change it because of the situation.'' After this initiative there was a rise with the September intake being the best ever -- at 672.

Mr. Doyles added: "I have stressed that if we are going to get out of the recession the people who are going to get out first are the ones with a well trained staff.

"It's an immediate saving for the businesses because they cannot see any damage. But in the long term there is definitely damage done when you find that other firms have a head start.'' Looking at trends over the past 10 years Mr. Doyles noted that many students had not been satisfied with community classes, but had progressed, through personal development levels, to university and diploma courses.

"Bermudians have not been satisfied to do personal development courses. They have continued to do commercial courses and gone into economics and accounting.

"They have also taken up mathematics and English as background to their other studies.

"It means we are able to prepare people for working in the local business community and international trade.'' He believes that many people have enrolled at the college with the view that they can improve on what they are doing. He gave the example of secretaries training to work with computers.

Mr. Doyles pointed out that the actual number of people involved in courses annually was around 2,000 with some registering a number of times.

Added to that are the 3,000 people enrolled at community schools. Mr. Doyles said: "Compared with other countries Bermuda is doing very well in adult and continuing education.

"About 10 percent of the adult population is involved in further education courses, which is excellent.

"When the recession ends we are expecting to pass that 4,000 registration barrier. Then in five years time my target is 6,000.'' Registration for January courses begins on today at the Stonington Campus, from 9.30 a.m. to 7 p.m., except for Friday when it ends at 6 p.m.

Registrations can be phoned in using credit cards from Tuesday.

Mr. Peter Doyles.