An ORT education becomes an attractive option for Mexicans

As Jewish children in Mexico flock to the capital city’s CIM ORT school, ORT Mexico is preparing to extend its activities into university-level business education.

As it enters its second academic year affiliated to World ORT, the CIM-ORT school has taken on an extra 200 students – an astonishing surge for a school which now serves 650 children.

ORT Mexico also expects its University Centre in Advanced Management and Business Development to rapidly kick start its enrolment.

Drawing on the expertise of ORT colleagues internationally – particularly at ORT Uruguay University, which is recognised as among the top five business schools in the Mercosur region, ORT Argentina, and Bramson ORT College in New York – the new ORT University Centre will initially provide BAs in Business Creation and Development, International Trade and Globalisation, and Marketing 2.0 and Advertising, and an MA in Advanced Business Management.

New initiatives in Mexico mean these young students
can look forward to an ORT education well into their 20s

“We are moving away from the North American model of business schools, which are seen by many as too academic, by offering courses which are intellectually challenging but also practical. We will be working with the business world to give our students real hands-on experience. This will be a university for entrepreneurs,” said the Chair of World ORT’s Board of Trustees and initiator of the project, Mauricio Merikanskas.

Asset sales and a personal investment by Mr Merikanskas, among others, mean the Centre will open on a site at the CIM-ORT school in September 2012.

“We expect to start with between 60 and 100 students but I believe we will have 300 full-time students within three years as well as more taking short courses,” said Mexico City-based Mr Merikanskas, a Fulbright scholar whose working life has encompassed university lecturing and successful entrepreneurship. “We are raising another $2 million so that we will be able to expand in our own premises.”

Scholarships will be available for Jewish students in need but the integration of classroom teaching with on-line courses means that the Centre will be widely affordable.