The Education Ministry is moving ahead with plans for two new schools to boost the skills of the students in the senior schools.

Yesterday, Minister Terry Lister expressed concern some public students may lack direction because they have no facilities to hone their skills outside the academic arena.

Funding was allocated in the 2004 Budget to research and develop a School for the Performing Arts and to open a Financial Services Academy. Mr. Lister told that a committee including members of the Education Ministry, the arts council, the Bermuda International Film Festival and the Bermuda Festival were working on the concept for a performing arts school.

?The school will focus on the visual and performing arts for the senior secondary students,? Mr. Lister said. ?The student will remain at the institution they entered whether it be CedarBridge or Berkeley and spend part of their school day in a dance or art class.?

He added that there would be a certain level of competitiveness to get into the school, which would hopefully be made up of at least 200 students.

The committee has not picked a school site but has decided that the school will be both for the visual and performing arts, Mr. Lister said. Plans for the Financial Services Academy in partnership with the New England College of Finance in Massachusetts are nearing fruition if funding can be raised. Up to $150,000 was allotted for the Academy

The Academy is the brainchild of Patricia Pettit of Pembroke Atlantic Ltd. and Mr. Lister said one-third of the funds still needs to be raised to get the Academy ?up and running?.

?We?re hoping to have the first students trained starting this July,? Mr. Lister said. Students will be selected from the graduating classes of the two schools who will then learn the ins and outs of the financial sector including computer skills training and workplace protocol. The hope is to then place the students in a job within the financial sector.

?We want to open the doors for the students to feel out the company and the company feel out the student,? Mr. Lister said.

The programme is designed for students who are not necessarily interested in attending university after graduation.