phase of a project designed to teach people about diversity.

Dr. Argentine Craig will be working with five facilitators as she continues work she started in 1994 at the Bermuda College in affiliation with the National Training Laboratory.

The other facilitators are Glenn Butler, Ernestine DeGraffe, Mike Kirkwood, Dr. Lee Butler and Dr. Ed Olson.

Dr. Craig said there were seven dimensions of diversity -- race/ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, social class, disability and religion/spirituality.

Participants in the course learn about these and look at themselves individually, as a group, at organisations they are involved in and finally at Bermudian society as a whole.

Last year 25 people finished the course and this year 36 will take part between September and December for a total of 200 work hours.

On completion of the programme, individuals are equipped to address the diversity issues and facilitate workshops and seminars on the subject.

Ms DeGraffe said she found the programme increased her awareness of the differences between people and made her recognise that people could do something to make others more conscious about diversity.

Everyone wanted essentially the same thing, she continued, which was a peaceful existence.

But because of past experiences they tended not to reach out and get to know one another.

At the culmination of the second course, its participants will join those from the first one for a programme called Future Search.

They, in turn, will join with about 150 individuals, representing a "vertical slice'' of the community, who will work together to create a vision of society's future, said Bermuda College president George Cook.