Development of a Business Plan and Road Map for Instituto Técnico Superior del Este (ITSE)
Summary
The education of young people is one of the building blocks to a modern, vibrant economy. By increasing skill levels it is a benefit to individuals and nation states striving to improve the health, wealth and prospects for all.
The Instituto Técnico Superior del Este (ITSE), instigated by President Juan Carlos Varela, is a visionary initiative for the development of young people in Panama. It will provide students with world class vocational training and enable them to secure high quality jobs with the nation’s employers that support economic growth in Panama.
The new college ITSE will be a state-of-the-art purpose built campus close to Tocumen Airport. With a planned opening date of January 2019, ITSE will train up to 5000 technical professionals at any one time in a range of subjects including logistics, languages, business, electronics, construction, engineering, tourism and hospitality. These areas of study were chosen based on People 1st’s labour market needs analysis and validated by their own research.
Developing business planning and a roadmap to meet the ITSE projected opening date required a team with a wide range of skills and expertise. People 1st managed and coordinated input from ten sector skills experts and a selection of UK and Panamanian colleges.
Our UK team have delivered over 250 days of consultancy work to deliver the outputs of our business plan and roadmap. Our detailed reports and project plan will act as a roadmap for the ITSE project team, forming a basis for future project activity. This work now provides a template for similar future tenders.
The Instituto Técnico Superior del Este (ITSE) is a bold project demanding a government level commitment. The results of our labour market needs analysis supported the idea that industry demanded higher skills from the current workforce.
Our recommendations on implementing a vocational education and training system with a national qualification framework. We have also provided:
- Outline recommendations for staffing and governance structures
- Recruitment and job descriptions
- Documentation on staff training and development
- A plan for infrastructure and the procurement of resources
- A financial strategy and stakeholder mapping
The new college will educate and train 5000 students in critical to growth of the Panamanian economy, People 1st feels deeply integrated in the future success of ITSE and look forward to our continuing relationship and to provide further support and consultancy throughout the implementation of ITSE.
“In its mission to make the ITSE project a reality, the Panamanian Government has made the decision to apply only the best practices in technical education and learn from those who have achieved great success in this sphere. In this matter, People 1st has provided the support and information required to implement ITSE. Their expertise has been of a great value.”
Ing. Maria Lourdes Peralta, Phd
Instituto Tecnico Superior del Este
