Former Government Senator Thaao Dill has left his job as a radio host and is now the recruitment officer for Bermuda College.Those who know him well might think it a fitting move.As a small child Mr Dill’s parents would punish him by taking away his books.His aptitude for learning continued as he got older he graduated from high school at Warwick Academy at age 14 and then spent a year in Saltus’ PG4, before travelling around Europe.“I had the intellectual aptitude to go to college, but I wasn’t ready socially or emotionally to be a self-sufficient student at university,” he said. “I really have thought for years if I had come to Bermuda College during that time I would have had the rigorous academic study, but still had time to grow emotionally.”After eight years at radio station Hott 107.5 Mr Dill had come to a point in his career where he needed to pursue new opportunities.“It was really serendipitous that the advertisement for this position came up essentially at the same moment I made the decision to pursue other opportunities.“Once I saw the advertisement in the back of the newspaper for the recruitment officer for the Bermuda College it was really a strong reaction that I had.“I didn’t even think ‘I could do it or it would be good to do it’, I thought I really wanted to do it. Immediately I thought of strategies and programmes and particular things that I could be doing.“Within 30 seconds of reading the ad, it really excited me,” he continued. “I knew I had to do it and luckily the college has welcomed me.”His primary focus as recruitment officer will be to communicate to the community the value and accessibility of a Bermuda College education.He said: “Frankly it just makes sense for so many of our people to come here and get educated, get qualified and get the benefits from the new opportunities that will improve their lives.“After two years here you can go from having access to a certain level of opportunities to a better level of opportunity, to making a certain amount of money to making a greater sum of money, to having a limited amount of freedom for yourself to having a greater opportunity to have the life you want.”He said it’s importance wasn’t “an ethereal thing” but something provable and true.Attending college and getting qualified allows you to enter the job market and have access to jobs and opportunities you wouldn’t have had before “especially now a days where folks need work more than ever before”.His job will essentially be twofold. Firstly proving his argument to people and secondly, once they understand to “make their process for entering [the college] as smooth and simple as possible”.Mr Dill believes education enables people to become more aware of themselves, the world around them and what they are capable of. They are also able to take advantage of more opportunities and have a greater potential for growth in the future.“The more education you are able to get, the more you are able to do and be for yourself and for your loved ones,” he said. “And it’s impossible to overstate the value of that.“That is why I am excited to be in this space because I get to put that belief into action and [throw myself] into a job where my core values are directly aligned with my professional responsibility. It’s really comfortable, so it’s great.”His own experience of being emotionally unprepared for the university setting is not a one-off. He said he has known or heard of many young people going away to school, who then had to return to the Island after the first or second semester because they weren’t able to handle independent life.The Bermuda College can give young people a taste of postsecondary education, while still having the support and guidance from parents and comforts of home.This is why Mr Dill’s long-term goal is to make it routine for young people to attend Bermuda College.He said: “I would like to help by making attending Bermuda College as completely unremarkable and normal for Bermudian students as it is to go to high school. Every single child and parent knows their child is going to go to preschool, primary, middle and high school.“There is no conversation and debate about it. This is simply what we do. We accept it because it’s valuable, important and sequentially necessary.“Bermuda College should be part of the sequence because, like those others are essential to see the development of our people, so is Bermuda College. So just finish the thought.“We need to normalise people’s attitudes that to attend Bermuda College is something that is really important.“I want Bermudians years from now to say I am going to Berkeley, CedarBridge and Bermuda College and they are not thinking about it, they just know this is what my life will look like and it’s a good life.”For more information e-mail tdill@college.bm or call 239-4099.