Technical students are to learn their trades at Bermuda College thanks to a new partnership with the National Training Board.

The two publicly funded quangos have entered into an agreement to work together to help build up Bermuda's skilled labour force — after years of NTB students being sent abroad to study.

The college's president Duranda Greene signed a memorandum of understanding with the NTB which states that both have committed to "meaningful cooperation" with the other.

The deal includes a scholarship agreement which will give some students the opportunity to study at the college after graduating from senior school.

In recent years, the NTB, which is the responsibility of the Department of Labour and Training, has sent hundreds of students overseas rather than to Bermuda College to study technical subjects.

Critics of the college claimed the courses needed for the Island were simply not available at the Paget campus. On Thursday, it was announced that many new programmes would now be available.

Dr. Greene said in early 2007, shortly after being appointed, that the college and the NTB were in discussions "to clarify our roles and so there is more support of one another".

She said the memorandum was a significant milestone for the college and signified a new level of technical education and training becoming available in Bermuda.

"It is a singularly high point for us in that it properly identifies our role and responsibility as a training and service provider of courses and programmes designed to meet the social and economic development needs of the community," she said.

Dr. Greene said the college would work with the Department of Labour to help develop courses and models to support a new national certification scheme for some trades.

Where it is unable to offer students a suitable course, it will help the Department find overseas training.

Former Education Minister Randy Horton hinted at the improved relationship between the NTB and the college in the House of Assembly earlier this month.

He told MPs he was proud to be able to report that the NTB no longer sent students overseas but to the college instead.

The NTB's new executive officer Pandora Glasford (née Wright), who replaced Michael Stowe in January, is a former deputy chairman of the college's board of governors.

She said upon her appointment that Bermuda College should be the first choice for technical education.

The courses on offer to NTB trainees are in air conditioning technology, auto collision repair, automotive technology, carpentry, culinary arts, electrical construction, electronics, plumbing and welding technology.

Others being developed include marine mechanics, seamanship, navigation and engine driver training.