International business leaders in Bermuda are being urged to get involved in helping turn around the Island's failing public education system and give direct mentoring and guidance to young people through programmes such as Big Brothers Big Sisters.

In the wake of a report by UK professor David Hopkins showing serious weaknesses in the Island's education system, it is time for the community — and that includes the international business community — to get involved, according to leading Bermudian business CEO Gerald Simons.

However, the Argus Group boss spoke of the need to do as much as possible to educate and train the shrinking Bermudian population to fill as many employment opportunities as possible on the Island.

However, he does not believe a long-held Bermudian dream that the Island will one day be able to fulfil all its employment requirements from its own population will happen in the global world of the 21st century.

That utopian belief from the 1950s has survived in some people's thoughts over the intervening decades but the statistics and dynamics of the world show it is even further from becoming a reality than ever before, according to a presentation by leading Argus Group boss.

Speaking to high-flying delegates at the inaugural Insurance Day Summit in Hamilton, Mr. Simons revealed he had also spoken to Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess and urged him to relax within the teaching professions the "Bermudaisation" policy, which ensures that non-Bermudians do not hold a job when there is an available Bermudian.

"I told him (that policy) should be relaxed in education so the children get the best teaching, wherever the teachers happen to come from. Well educated children will be able to compete in the global economy," said Mr. Simons.

"The business community in Bermuda must realise that education is too important to be left to the education minister alone.

"I would encourage business people to volunteer to serve on school boards and become mentors for public school children."

Mr Simons said the Island's geographical size of a little over 20 square miles and its population of around 65,000 mean it has a limited amount of human resources to call upon and it was inevitable that to succeed at the highest level it requires foreign employees.

He used the world-famous Harvard University as an analogy.

"If Harvard University only relied on US citizens it might be a pretty good university. If it only relied on citizens of Massachusetts it might be an 'okay' university, and if it only relied on people from Cambridge, Massachusetts, it would hardly exist and would be an 'okay community college'," said Mr. Simons.

"Bermuda's economy continues to grow, but over the last two decades the birth rate has been declining. We are 200 births short each year compared with 1956."

He said Bermuda's position was not unique. The search for talent to drive economies was being played out by countries across the world.

"In 2005, for the first time in Bermuda, there were more people working in international business than any other sector, including Government," said Mr. Simon.

He explained the various initiatives of the Bermuda Insurance Institute, of which he is president, in providing training and seminars to the local workforce wishing to work in the insurance industry.

"Last year we had 788 people attend 24 seminars, that was a healthy increase on previous years. And we are grateful to the tutors we have that have been drawn from within the insurance industry and who are practising professionals."

As he spoke on Bermuda's efforts to improve the employment opportunities for its population and reduce the need for foreign employees in an attempt to make Bermuda an ever more attractive place to set up and expand for new business, Mr. Simons said one international start-up in 2005 with 40 staff has been able to fill half those positions with Bermudians.

As he made his appeal for business leaders to become involved in school boards and mentoring of Bermuda's next generation, the Argus Group CEO said he was overall optimistic for the future of Bermuda.