Fight Poverty: Educate Women in Panama

The vocational training phase takes place at the Panama International Hotel School, which is a high-quality private facility that trains all levels of hotel staff, from housekeepers to managers, but typically would not accept women with the backgrounds of the CAPTA women under normal circumstances: There is an often unspoken belief among service-industry employers that certain segments of our society, most particularly the urban poor, are not prepared to handle responsibility and therefore the best practice is to avoid hiring from those segments. 

What we have found is that the success of CAPTA’s graduates at the Panama International Hotel School and with employers has begun to challenge that assumption in our community. 

During the vocational training phase, the women enrolled a special intensive course design for the CAPTA Program, to provide the women with the knowledge and training they need to become waitress and housekeeping assistant.  They not only just went to classes from 8am to 4 pm every day for two weeks, but also were committed for a third week of full practice at the hotels of the Bern Group in Panama.