Hundreds sign for waiters in Bermuda

HAMILTON, Bermuda – More than 300 people have applied to “reinvent themselves” as waiters and servers in a new hospitality industry course as unemployment continues to bite in Bermuda.The project – a joint partnership between government, the Bermuda Hotel Association and the Chamber of Commerce’s restaurant division – aims to give people new basic skills in food, wine and beverageservice.With unemployment running at six per cent, many Bermudians are seeking to return to a once powerful but now struggling industry they increasingly turned their backs on in recent years as international business replaced tourism as the main plank of the island’s economy.Of the 300 who want to sign up, 45 have already been screened, with 15 having embarked on their first course at Bermuda College, Economy Minister Patrice Minors told the House of Assembly on Friday.“Honourable members will be aware that over the years Bermudians have opted out of the hospitality industry for any number of reasons,” Minors said in a ministerial statement. (CMC)