Bermuda's Financial Services Academy, which provides entry level training for the financial services industry, is up and running.

Nine students began a four-week course of training this week ? all of them have graduated from high school but are exploring career options in the financial services industry that do not require a university degree.

The concept is based on a similar programme operated by the New England College of Finance in Boston which began in 1999.

"The big word here is access ? providing access to an industry where they never would have thought they would have access," said Patricia Pettit, who pioneered the concept for Bermuda.

"This is not a job creation exercise, this is not a PR exercise ? it is a workforce development initiative."

Students spend all day learning customer service, workplace protocol and financial literacy. And in an effort to replicate the environment of the workplace as closely as possible, sessions are being held in company boardrooms across Hamilton.

Ms Pettit described the programme as "very intense" and said that the curriculum was not merely lifted from the New England programme but that meetings were held with local human resources staff in the industry.

The programme is currently being funded by a $150,000 budget allocation from the Ministry of Education and is free to all participants. But it is hoped that the funding will be shared between the industry and the Government in future.

"You have to fill out a very serious application whereby there was a skills certification form that had to be verified. You had to write a personal assessment of what you were all about and why you should come into it. And another kind of essay about why I came into financial services," said Ms Pettit.

Some 32 students were recommended by the Island's high schools and 13 applied.

A handful of them ended up deciding on other options, explained education officer Kalreta Conyers-Steede.

On the Island to kick off the first Financial Services Academy course is Linda Fera, the director of the New England College of Finance programme.

Ms Fera said that some 500 students had been trained by her College since the programme started in 1999 ? including two groups from Dublin and Belfast in Ireland.

The students are constantly assessed and then evaluated at the end of the course.The first group will graduate on October 15.

Here, it is hoped that locals will soon take over teaching the courses after some training during the initial stages.

Additional courses will be determined by the needs of the industry.