When Michael Stowe walks out of the doors of the National Training Board for the last time tomorrow after eight years as executive officer, he'll take away the sense of a mission accomplished.

He talked to The Royal Gazette about his time in charge, his traumatic suspension in 2006 and his hopes for technical training on the Island.

Eight years ago, Bermuda's newly created National Training Board had one member of staff, occupied 200 square feet of office space, had an annual budget under a million dollars and was helping fewer than 30 young Bermudians better their job prospects.

In 2008, the same organisation employs ten people, takes up 2,600 square feet, has a $3.6 million budget and can name some 2,000 Islanders it has helped to achieve their career goals.

That first member of staff, executive officer Mike Stowe, will leave the organisation tomorrow to return to a career in the private sector.

"I consider myself very privileged to have served for eight years as the executive officer of the NTB," he says. "I feel very encouraged about leaving and I feel very happy about leaving. I believe a change is needed for me and a change is needed for the National Training Board."

Mr. Stowe, who is returning to the private sector, had a goal when he was recruited as a consultant to lead the NTB at the start of this decade; to turn a small committee of Government into a fully-fledged organisation.

Having overseen the board's growth and served under four chairmen, he now feels it's time for someone else to take charge with a new vision and fresh perspective. "I have been at the NTB for eight years and what I intended to accomplish, I accomplished," he says.

The 59-year-old has spent his working life immersed in the technical trades — first as an electrician running his own business for 14 years, before obtaining bachelor's and master's degrees in the States,

After a stint as executive officer for the Government's National Drug Strategy initiative in the early 1990s, he ran his own company again for six years. International Strategic Management sent technical students to study overseas — a perfect grounding for what he'd be expected to manage at the NTB.

He remembers his interview for the NTB when he was asked how important the organisation was. "I replied: 'The National Training Board is a social imperative'," he recalls. "I'm more convinced of that today perhaps than ever before. To me, it's important because education and training is a social equaliser."

If the two pillars of Bermuda's economy are international business and tourism, Mr. Stowe believes that the NTB is the reinforcement behind them.

"Without the work of the NTB, how do we manage our electrical and mechanical and telecommunications systems?" he asks. "Every day we take it for granted. We must value the people who provide these services."

The board's role, according to its website, is to help "build a top-quality Bermudian labour force that meets the needs of local and international employers".

That means helping to put young Bermudians through apprenticeships in partnership with industry and sending technical students to the Bermuda College or overseas to gain qualifications.

Right now, the NTB has 78 apprentices — 18 of them overseas and the remainder at the college. There are about 40 technical scholarship students abroad.

Mr. Stowe, whose three adult sons all studied technologies at college level and now work on the Island, wants to see those numbers increased and more Bermudians given the chance to improve their job skills. "I believe we can do a lot more in Bermuda and should."

He gives the example of a 20-year-old woman working in a restaurant for about $20,000 a year who received assistance from the NTB. She increased her salary to $70,000 after two years technical training and having obtained an associate's degree.

Mr. Stowe says Government has shown a serious commitment to improving technical training and deep pockets when it comes to funding the NTB.

But he says the real drive must come from industry. "If there is a lack of training it's only because there's a lack of demand for training. This really comes from the industry. Industry needs to present a challenge to the NTB. I'd like to say that the agency is being overwhelmed with requests for training but that's really not the case."

He defends Bermuda College against criticism it has suffered in recent years for not providing enough technical training and is optimistic that the free tuition now on offer there will free up some of the NTB's budget for local training.

"Something we have to keep in mind is: no matter how much technical training we do in Bermuda, we can't do all of it," he explains, adding that the college has limitations in terms of its capacity and capability to cater for all trades.

He says it is often far more cost effective for the NTB to send students abroad than set up training facilities here in certain areas. Bermuda needs only a handful of machinists, for example, and to train them here would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more than sending them overseas.

"We have to identify cost effective models to make sure that we are spending taxpayers' money soundly," says Mr. Stowe, adding: "The technical training facility of the college is very vital to the workforce economy. The college is doing a lot more than it used to do. I believe that if (college president) Dr. Duranda Greene had been president six years ago we would be further ahead than we are.

"I'm very optimistic that the college's role will grow and play a very significant part in technical training."

In September 2006, Mr. Stowe's name hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when he was suspended from duty while an inquiry was held into the NTB's finances.

The Warwick grandfather-of-four was reinstated the following February after no irregularities were found. Government has never explained publicly why the investigation was launched.

Mr. Stowe says he was completely exonerated after a "difficult time" and insists the suspension is not connected to his decision to resign from the NTB now.

"I moved beyond it and I did so rather quickly," he says. "For me to dwell on it would only have served as a distraction.

"I believe I'm a stronger person because of it. It's something that's in the past. It was important for me personally to put the whole thing behind me and move on and it was important for the NTB to do the same.

"It was an unpleasant experience but it never caused me to second guess why I was at the NTB and what I needed to achieve and accomplish."

Interviews for Mr. Stowe's replacement begin this week. He is confident that his successor will be able to continue the NTB's growth and is wholly positive about the future of technical training in Bermuda.

Having sat on the interim board established to push through much-needed reform after the Hopkins report, he believes there is a sound plan in place.

He says if the board can achieve its reform goal it will be "the most important accomplishment in the 400-year history of this country".

"I'm very much encouraged with the plan and the reform goals that have been set by the interim education board. I believe if everyone gives it a chance, it will work. We will transform our public education system.

"If we can't turn public education around then this Island has a very grim future. But I believe we can."