Panama’s vice minister of education visits Edinburgh College

Edinburgh College hosted Panama’s vice minister of education to show him the success of a project to train Panamanian teachers to deliver English-language learning in their own country.

The vice minister, Carlos Staff, and a government delegation visited the college’s Sighthill campus to discuss the progress of the five-year Panama Bilingue scheme, which is supporting the growth of English-language learning in Panama. Edinburgh College is a partner in Panama Bilingue and is delivering the residential training in Edinburgh to visiting Panamanian teachers.

There are currently 44 teachers from Panama training at the college, following the first three groups that came throughout 2015.

The minister and guests met their compatriots and senior college staff as well as Ross Martin, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, and Jonathan Wilson, international section head (education) at Scottish Development International.

Edinburgh College Principal Annette Bruton said: “It was a privilege to welcome the vice minister to the college to look at how we’re running the Panama Bilingue project as well as discuss how we can continue to develop and enhance ties.

“The college is using its expertise to support the development of our international partners – I am so pleased to see how our teachers can, and are, making a difference in the global community.”

Panama Bilingue aims to train 10,000 teachers in English language and pedagogy over the next five years. The college was one of the first UK organisations to become a provider of education as part of the teachers’ eight-week (for English for Speakers of Other Languages teachers) or 16-week (for newly graduated teachers of other subjects) weeks of immersive study in the UK.

Blog News ,

Your Comments

Latest News

Write For Us

Got an Edinburgh news story to share or are you interested in writing for Edinburgh247.com.

Please contact darren at edinburgh247 dot com for more information.

We also encourage you to leave your comments and reviews of places and events in Edinburgh. We have free tickets and goodies to give away to contributors.

Get in touch on Twitter!