Bermuda College hopes to draw up a long-term plan for its future ? with a little help from the public.

A Strategic Direction Initiative programme is planned at the College on January 28, during which members of the public, businesses and Government will meet to discuss the way forward.

Bermuda College president, Charles Green, said a committee had been established last September to gather input from the public as to how they thought the College could improve itself in the future.

The committee drew up a list of questions which will be addressed by participants in next Friday?s programme.

?During the morning we will divide up into groups and will address each of the questions on these lists,? he said.

One of these questions is whether or not the College should admit students who might not be as well prepared as expected in order to qualify for admission.

Dr. Green said the College?s mission had always been setting students on the path to success and by this he intended never to deny anyone access to the College. ?If we have to spend a little more time and money on getting some of our students up to par with others, then that?s what we?ll do,? he said.

This will be welcome news to the ears of Education Minister, Terry Lister, who just this week said that providing technical education was vital to the development of Bermuda.

Access to technical education and training is available at Tech Hall at the Bermuda College.

Dr. Green added that the College had shown great success over the past 31 years and he saw the programme as an opportunity for people to give the College feedback as to how it could proceed successfully into the future.

Even though applications to attend the programme had closed last week, Dr. Green said the College would continue to accept applications right up to the last minute.

So far about 300 business leaders, Government officials and CEOs have responded, but the College can accommodate 400 in the Strategic Direction Initiative Programme.

Following group discussions in the morning, a lunch will be held at the College during which time culinary students will have the opportunity to showcase their talent.

During the lunch, groups working behind the scenes will use information from the completed questionnaires to prepare a document which will be presented to participants.

?Once we have this document published, we will refer back to it in our annual reports to see what we have achieved at the College, as well as what we still have to do,? Dr. Green said.

The Strategic Direction Initiative will be held from 8.30 a.m. until 3.30 p.m. on January 28 and the College can be contacted for more information on attending the programme.