Companies need to invest time and money in order to cover the serious limitations of graduates from the public school system, which is an obstacle to development.  Otherwise the level of professionals will continue to worsen and outside workers will have to be allowed to come to Panama to fill the void.

In Panama the educational problem has already been diagnosed. Martesfinanciero.com reports that the country has at least 14 diagnostic and prognostic documents on education, but “none have managed to be implemented completely to produce students with an optimal or acceptable level of knowledge which allows them to have the skills demanded from the labor market. ”

Panamanian business regularly pronounce on this issue, calling it “grave”, and pointing to the public education system as “low quality”, and having “serious deficiencies”.

“Graduates of the education system, either formal education or technical training courses, tend to be young with many shortcomings or limitations, so companies have to invest time and resources in order to fill the gaps that are created from secondary education onwards and in vocational and university courses. ”

The implications for companies are serious: loss of productivity and competitiveness, difficulties in obtaining qualified personnel in certain areas, combined with a high turnover of staff because of human resource cannibalization. They also have to invest more in training, hiring foreign personnel in dynamic sectors of the economy which requires skills that are not available locally and the wage costs that entails, said Irvin Halman, President of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama (Cciap).

Source: martesfinanciero.com