The transition toward sustainable production requires engineering and science education to adopt active, interdisciplinary, and practice-oriented teaching strategies. This article presents a comparative analysis of two educational initiatives implemented in Panama aimed at fostering sustainability competencies at the university and secondary school levels. The first initiative, developed at the Technological University of Panama, integrates project-based learning and circular economy principles into an extracurricular module focused on production planning, sustainable design, and quality management. Students created prototypes using recycled HDPE and additive manufacturing technologies within a simulated startup environment. The second initiative, carried out in two public secondary schools, applied project- and challenge-based learning through the Design Thinking framework, supporting teachers and students in addressing real-world sustainability challenges. Both programs emphasize hands-on learning, creativity, and iterative development, embedding environmental awareness and innovation in both formal and informal educational settings. The article identifies key opportunities and challenges in implementing active methodologies for sustainability education. Challenges such as limited infrastructure and rigid schedules were identified, along with lessons learned for future implementation. Students connected local issues to global goals like the SDGs and saw themselves as agents of change. These initiatives offer practical models for advancing sustainability education through innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration.

The dynamic and global competitive environment induces companies that want to remain in the market to seek new ways to maintain a digital presence that favors the generation of new business, provide agile responses and consequently increase revenues. Studies indicate that digitalization helps to strengthen the competitiveness of the company because it strengthens the business model and the management of processes (internal and external) that lead to efficiency and customer satisfaction. This paper presents results of a study with 514 companies (micro 66.3%, small 25.7% and medium 8%) with the objective of validating the assumption that "the higher the degree of adoption of digital technologies, the better competitive position is expected". To respond to this hypothesis, a linear regression model was proposed between the competitive position of the MSME (Y) and the importance of the technologies adopted by the companies. The analyses necessary to validate the hypothesis of the model were carried out in the SPSS statistical package. The results showed that the variable Information technologies (X1) presented significance, which did not occur with the Operational technologies (X2), this can be associated with the high percentage of microenterprises that responded, because they possibly have a low level of specialization and do not have the financial/technological conditions to accelerate the pace of digitization that allows them to meet market demands, improve performance and consequently their competitiveness. Public policies focused on raising awareness and strengthening their digital skills are needed to enable them to face the current competitive context in a sustainable manner.

In contemporary engineering education, the conventional subject-focused structure often falls short in fostering the necessary problem-and project-based approaches to build necessary competencies. This paper proposes a five-subject modular concept integrating different departments to develop transdisciplinary skills without compromising on content. It links different modern teaching methods to test their eight students' interaction potential and productivity. This proposed concept encourages collaborative supervision by professors from diverse higher education centers, challenging students to participate in a semester-long simulation where two groups emulate start-up companies. Tasked with competing in planning, designing and developing a sustainable solution from plastic waste (HDPE), students delve into hands-on experiences, learning how to integrate the requirements and approaches of sustainable production. During the module, knowledge and fundamental skills in the field of engineering were qualitatively measured before and after to compare with the skills learned through the module.

This study compares two independent educational interventions in Panama designed to foster entrepreneurial competencies through sustainability challenges, active learning, and digital fabrication. The first, implemented with final-year industrial engineering students, involved designing sustainable products from recycled HDPE while integrating flipped and mirror classroom strategies, circular economy principles, and green entrepreneurship. The second engaged secondary school students from public institutions through Design Thinking, challenge-based learning, and CAD/CAM training to address local sustainability issues aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Both interventions employed pre-and post-assessment instruments to evaluate learning outcomes. In higher education, knowledge acquisition and key competencies such as collaboration, strategic thinking, and contextualization demonstrated large to medium effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.90 and 0.74). In secondary education, all competencies, including teamwork, innovation, sustainability awareness, and technical skills, showed large effects (d > 0.8). Together, these findings highlight the effectiveness of integrating active methodologies and digital fabrication in promoting sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship across educational levels.