A $300,000 grant to help poorer students study at Bermuda College will continue into the next fiscal year.

Curtis Dickinson, the Minister of Finance, said the Paget college was “a key stakeholder in the economic growth and development of our island”.

He added during his Budget Statement: “During the 2019-20 fiscal year, the college will continue to meet its mission of setting Bermuda’s students on their paths to success.”

Mr Dickinson said that the college would continue to receive the grant “to ensure that no student is prohibited from attending Bermuda College as a result of limited household incomes”.

He added: “This investment commenced in 2017 and has supported close to 450 Bermudians in pursuing their tertiary education.”

Mr Dickinson said that $279,000 had also been earmarked for the College Promise programme.

The programme, pledged in this year’s Throne Speech, will award scholarships to attend the college to public school graduates with a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

He added that another $85,000 would be earmarked to help “non-traditional students” who wanted to become certified as landscapers and compliance officers and to help nursing students studying abroad.

Mr Dickinson said: “It is anticipated that $20,000 will support landscaping training for a new cohort of students in order to decrease the number of non-Bermudian employees on work permits.

“A further $20,000 will support Bermudian nursing students to undergo practicums at SickKids’ Hospital in Toronto, Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, and Lahey Hospital in Boston.”

He added that about $40,000 will be used to help develop the National Educators’ Institute, set up to “provide a centralised entity for public and private school educators and counsellors of all levels to engage in and benefit from professional development, professional learning and research”.