Five students from The Berkeley Institute have spent the summer getting hands-on exposure to Bermuda’s growing fintech sector through internships at Chubb and Paradise Mobile, supported by the Economic Development Department.

The placements were funded through an EDD grant aimed at giving students real-world insight into how fintech, artificial intelligence and digital technology are applied in business. The interns — Musa Abdul-Jabbar, Shiloh Cruickshank, Natalia Dill, Zane Furbert-Tankard and Dunnajai O’Mara — split their time between Chubb’s Hamilton offices and Paradise Mobile.

David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance, said the initiative builds on work he and Crystal Caesar, the Minister of Education, observed this year, when the students presented classroom fintech projects at Berkeley.

“Now, through their internships, they are applying those skills to real projects and gaining insight into how technology is shaping industries,” Mr Burt said. “These are the types of experiences we want our young people to engage in to shape Bermuda’s digital future.”

Ms Caesar added that the internships put Bermuda’s “signature learning” philosophy into action.

“Seeing these young people take what they have learnt in the classroom and apply it in professional environments is what signature learning is all about,” she said.

At Paradise Mobile, students shadowed frontline teams, studied product strategy and marketing and gained project management experience. Nico Gonzalez, the company’s chief digital officer, said Paradise Mobile was committed to supporting local talent. Ms Dill, an intern, described the experience as “transformative”, noting that it opened her eyes to career paths she had not previously considered.

At Chubb, the students worked on insurance propositions for e-commerce and fintech platforms, complete with pitch decks, marketing plans and rating algorithms. They also took part in a simulation exercise as chief executives of a digital insurance company, making strategic decisions through scenarios such as natural disasters and cyberattacks.

The programme follows other EDD-backed initiatives such as the Bermuda Coders online courses launched last year. Berkeley’s fintech students achieved a 100 per cent pass rate in the AI fundamentals certification.

Maryem Biadillah, acting director of the EDD, said: “Programmes like this internship give students practical exposure to real-world applications of emerging tech, ensuring they develop the skills, confidence and networks to not only compete, but also lead.”