After more than a decade of pause, the Ministry of Education (Meduca) and the Panamanian Association of Hotels (APATEL) signed a Letter of Intent to reactivate the Educational-Enterprise Sponsorship Program. This initiative seeks to connect students from the Tourism Bachelor's degree with the real-world labor market of the hotel sector. The program's relaunch aims to ensure that young people do not just remain with classroom theory. It was explained that the program includes mentoring for students and teachers, internships in hotels, training, and practical activities so that young people can see firsthand how the tourism industry operates. This initiative is projected to benefit over 60,000 students from Professional and Technical Secondary Education across the country, distributed in 117 educational centers. The idea is for them to enter hotels, see how the industry works from the inside, and gain practical experience that will help them when looking for a job. During the official event, the Minister of Education, Lucy Molinar, highlighted that these types of alliances between the education system and the private sector are key to better preparing students. In a first phase, the program will directly impact over 5,000 students from the Tourism Bachelor's degree, with the goal of later including the Bachelor's degrees in Commerce and Accounting. The president of APATEL, Víctor Concepción, explained that the project is based on three pillars: practical education, job opportunities for young people, and the active participation of the private sector in academic training. Through this model, each school will have a sponsoring company that will provide spaces for practical learning for students. In this first stage, 15 educational centers will participate, linked to hotels and companies in the tourism sector. Among the participating schools and companies are the Commercial Institute Bolívar with Sheraton Grand, the IPT Commerce with Best Western El Dorado, the Dr. Octavio Méndez Pereira Educational Center with Marriott AC, the Bilingual Educational Center Republic of Haiti with Marriott Executive Apartments, and the IPT Juan Díaz with Miramar Intercontinental. Also part of the program are the Isabel Herrera Obaldía School with Las Américas Golden Tower, the IPT Río Hato with Hotel Buenaventura, the IPT La Concepción with Hotel Dos Ríos in Volcán, the Pablo Emilio Corsen College with Hampton Inn in David, the Francisco Morazán College with Hotel Ciudad de David, and the José Guardia Vega College with Radisson Colón. This phase also includes the Plinio Moscoso Institute with Hotel Los Guayacanes, the Benigno Tomás Argote with Hotel Valle Escondido in Chiriquí, the Francisco Morazán College with Hotel Hacienda Los Molinos, the Richard Newman College with JW Marriott, and the IPT Jeptha B. Duncan with Hilton Waldorf. From Meduca, they indicated that they will continue to manage new letters of intent with other private sector associations interested in joining this model, which seeks to strengthen student training and expand their job placement opportunities within Panama's tourism industry.
