quality education stands in the way of the Island becoming a world centre for the insurance and reinsurance markets.

Director of Training and Education at the Bermuda Insurance Institute Peter Doyle strongly defended the high standards of education in the insurance sector in a speech at the industry's education luncheon awards.

Mr. Doyle told a room of insurance professionals and students gathered at the Hamilton Princess that he had changed his speech after reading an article published in The Royal Gazette last week. In this article Don Watson, Director of Reinsurance at Standard and Poor's, explained why his company, the global publisher of financial information and publishing, produced a report stating that Bermuda's size and lack of infrastructure would stop the world's insurance and reinsurance companies moving en-masse to Bermuda. Speaking about why businesses would be reluctant to relocate to the Island, Mr. Watson said that not only was there a problem with poor standards of employees in Bermuda, but people moving to the Island were concerned for the education of their children within Bermudian schools.

Mr. Doyle strongly disagreed with Mr. Watson. He said: "These remarks were posted on The Royal Gazette web site and any reference to our insurance industry is big news, internationally. We therefore need to set the record straight.'' Mr. Doyle, speaking about adult education in the area of insurance, said: "Through the Bermuda Insurance Institute's training efforts, last year 47 people gained professional insurance designations. This year 31 people gained professional insurance designations.

"Add to this Bermuda's graduates from The College of Insurance's MBA programme -- eight graduates with five more to graduate in the next few months -- and we have over eighty graduates in two years through continuing education. That is they have been learning and qualifying while holding down a full-time job.'' He added: "One can safely conclude that in insurance education our pool of well-trained people is not being allowed to dry up.'' Mr. Watson said in last week's article that Bermudians would have to become interested in exciting opportunities that insurance could offer.

But Mr. Doyle disagreed: "Bermudians KNOW that insurance is the Cinderella story in international business. How can they miss it? Almost every day the media features it in acquisitions, mergers, quarterly earnings, scholarships, new buildings and investments in school programmes.

"Yes Bermudians not only know Cinderella -- they want to try on her glass slipper.'' Mr. Doyle said that rather than having any concerns about the standards of training on the Island, he worried about there being too many qualified people to fill jobs.

"Insurance, unlike tourism and construction, is not a labour intensive industry. Mergers and acquisitions usually result in redundancies, not creation of new jobs.

"Rather than worrying about lack of insurance education I worry about over training for every-level positions.''