Help wanted: professors in Panama

Even if they build it, maybe no one can run it. Panama is building a global logistics center, including a giant free zone, an airport hub, and a wider canal.

Banking and real estate have also grown strongly during the past decade. But the new projects may to some extent turn out to be a movie set - nice looking from the front, but without much behind it.

Panama has a serious talent shortage, the product of one of Latin America's worst education systems, according to a Reuters article published last week, based partly on the World Economic Forum 2011 competitiveness rankings.

Panama also has the hemisphers's second widest gap between rich and poor, according to United Nations data Which brings us to teachers. In recent years, Panama has been the regional leader in attracting foreign businesses, which need competent staff. Laureate International Universities already has two campuses in Panama. There's room for more big investments in education, as well as small ones. Unemployed or retired teachers in other countries could do worse than setting up small schools in Panama


Opportunities

• Primary and secondary schools
   
• Universities
   
• Technical schools
   
• Teachers