Five new bright sparks joined the electrical and mechanical engineering section of a government ministry yesterday.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the public works minister, said the new staff meant that the section now had an “almost full complement” of staff.

Colonel Burch added: “As you will readily see, there are five success stories standing before you today — a testament to both the training regime within the ministry but also the personal interest that is taken by the chief engineer in their recruitment and development.

“The current chief, Mr Yves Lorite, has almost single-handedly been responsible for the progress we have made this year in the recruitment of Bermudians in the engineering department.”

Remi Subair, principal electrical engineer, first entered the programme in 2004 after graduating from Western New England University.

After working in Edmonton, Canada in 2008 for a year, Mr Subair returned as an electrical engineer and was promoted in 2017.

Van Dyke Bean, an electrical engineering assistant, has been with the ministry since 2012 and is technical assistant to an engineer in the department.

Mr Bean, along with Mr Subair, was one of the first of the new recruits to join the ministry’s electrical engineering section.

Daniele Bortoni, an electrical engineer, rejoined the ministry this year after he worked for Building Design Partnership Ltd, one of the leading design engineering firms in Manchester, for about two years.

He spent most of his time working on new hospitals and university campuses.

Zeeko Johnstone joined the section in April as its only mechanical engineer.

He graduated cum laude from Florida International University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering.

Jamar Dill, an electrical engineer, joined the ministry in May as the newest recruit.

He worked at Belco as an electrical fitter before going to Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland in 2012.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in maintenance management, and is now working towards a professional engineering licence.

Mr Dill said: “This has been a great opportunity — the workforce development programme is an absolutely amazing programme because it gets your foot in the door.

“We’re going to have a nice opportunity to run to Toronto for our licences. Once we get our licences the next step is to look to fill our boss’s shoes.”