others' old ideas and presenting them as fresh plans of their own.

Ms Smith was referring to Government's plan to establish a vocational training programme with a technological education officer for the Bermuda College overseeing it.

Labour Minister the Hon. Irving Pearman and Education Minister the Hon.

Clarence Terceira recently announced that the post, which is expected to be filled early next year, will fall under the Labour and Home Affairs Ministry.

And they told The Mid-Ocean News they came up with the plan after working separately on trying to find ways of improving job opportunities for Bermuda's youth.

"We both came to more or less the same conclusions, independently, that the Island needed a new emphasis on vocational training,'' Dr. Terceira is quoted as saying in a Mid-Ocean News September 17 article.

"One immediate observation we made was that Bermuda now imports people to fill many of these technology-based positions. Training our own people would afford us the opportunity to reduce the number of outside workers.'' "Having recognised a change in Bermuda, a reduction in demand for unskilled labour in the construction industry, for example, we needed to look into the Island's present and future requirements,'' Mr. Pearman added.

The technological training officer will be responsible for: Introducing, or upgrading, existing crafts and technology training within the Island's public school system; Ensuring the same opportunity for technical training exists within every school; and Educating teachers to make sure they understand what the system has to offer and making sure students are also aware of this.

"When this appointment is filled . ..,'' Mr. Pearman said, "we will be tracking with the business community the specific requirements of that segment of the community for vocational-related training.

"This was no pie in the sky project, but the result of detailed, careful planning by the two departments.'' But Ms Smith said the Ministers' plans were recommendations made in a report submitted by The Bermuda Technical Institute's Old Boys Alumnae to the Bermuda College in March.

Mr. Pearman denied the claim yesterday.

The report, titled "Apprenticeship, Training, and Retraining Programmes'' was one of several prepared to help the college chart its course into the 21st Century.

It called for: The Education Department to introduce trade education at middle schools with "more complete courses'' at high school level; The related business sector to train unskilled workers or re-train employees to become "more effective, reliable workers''; The local work force to enter into contractual agreements with employers in either partial or full payment of their training/education cost; and The college to be "a multi-user facility, coordinating student ambition, employer/workforce demands and the certification requirements of Government and business''.

"We can no longer afford to lose 30 percent of our young people, through apathy and inaction, to the social ills of our times,'' it concluded.

While Ms Smith stressed that students going into the technical areas required the same sound educational background as others, she said: "I find it strange that two Government Ministers should come up with the same thought that Bermuda young people need technical training.

"I find it curious when young people, a while ago, came up with a document on how vocational training should be carried out.'' Ms Smith said parents, who visited middle schools in Canada, also submitted a report which recommended having vocational training in middle schools.

And she said many of the things that Dr. Terceira has recently announced were recommended in the Education Planning Team's report, completed more than five years ago.

"We thought that if Government cared, it would at least give credit to those people who came up with those reports,'' she said.

But Mr. Pearman denied that Government's plans to revive technical training came from the mentioned reports.

"We for sometime have noted the need to get back to techincal training,'' he said. "As we came through that growth period in the eighties it was difficult to interest people in the trades because they could go out and make money in areas requiring less skills.

"But now there's a new demand for trade skills. There are also some categories of labour that have a large number of non-Bermudians. In order to have Bermudians fill those positions we have to make provisions for training.'' Mr. Pearman said he had always felt strongly about technical training.

"And,'' he said, "the time has come. There's a need now. We see the need and we're going to get on with it.''