The Kriete Institute of Engineering and Sciences is supported by the business sector, which will begin teaching in March 2025.
Salvadoran entrepreneur and philanthropist Roberto Kriete announced the creation of a university focused on the training of engineering and sciences, under a futuristic model that responds to the demand of the new industries.
The Kriete Institute of Engineering and Sciences (Key) has the support of “friend entrepreneurs,” whose curriculum is prepared with advice from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico, as well as Olin College of Engineering, a private university in Boston.
Does the country need economic growth to raise the standard of living for all Salvadoran brothers and raising the standard of living requires two things: education and investment. We believe that an engineering-focused university is important at this time for the development of the country’s future. It will be a very futuristic university, said the entrepreneur in an interview with Telecorporación Salvador (TCS).
Kriete, considered one of the richest entrepreneurs in Central America, said the curriculum is made from the hand of the private sector. “Of the people who will give (students) employment during and after they finish their university studies,” he said.
The new institute will begin teaching in March 2025, the entrepreneur said.
In addition, teachers will come from the private sector, who will implement a skills-based learning model (power skills) and learn doing. Students will have access to highly equipped workshops and digital simulators with state-of-the-art technology, a newspaper’s published ad note notes.
Are we going to strive to create human beings that have a capacity that goes far beyond what they have learned, both studying and doing. That they have the capacity to analyze, that they can do ‘critical thinking’, that they can solve complex problems. We’re going to teach them how to work as a team, to communicate,’ the entrepreneur said.
Kriete is an aviation giant, chairman of Kingsland Holdings, a 22 per cent shareholder of Avianca Holdings. He is also a shareholder in Volaris and Aeroman, the aircraft maintenance center of El Salvador.
El Salvador has only one public university, while 23 are private. In addition, there are technological and specialized institutes. Among the most successful cases is the Higher School of Economics and Business (ESEN), founded in 1990 with the support of the Poma family.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo