Colombia’s President-elect Appoints a Dominican Friar as Director of the National Learning Service

(ZENIT News / Bogota, 07.23.2026).- Colombia’s incoming president has chosen an unusual figure to lead one of the country’s most important institutions for social mobility: a Dominican friar with a background in philosophy, theology, university administration and international business.

President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella announced on July 21 that Ricardo Torres Castro, a member of the Order of Preachers, will become director of the National Learning Service, known as SENA, when the new administration begins on August 7.

The appointment places a Catholic religious at the head of a public institution with a vast presence across Colombia and a mission that reaches far beyond the classroom. SENA provides free technical and technological training, supports entrepreneurship and connects workers with employment opportunities. Its programs serve millions of people each year.

De la Espriella said Torres Castro’s mandate would be to rebuild confidence among employers, modernize SENA’s physical and technological infrastructure, strengthen internationalization and restore the institution’s role as an ally of productivity, innovation and social mobility.

The new director’s appointment also reflects the incoming government’s intention to raise the status of technical and technological education, which De la Espriella says should no longer be treated as a second-tier alternative to university studies.

For Torres Castro, the challenge is broader still. According to the administration’s presentation of his plans, SENA should evolve from an institution primarily associated with training courses into a central instrument for closing social gaps and connecting education more effectively with society.

That agenda places particular emphasis on the relationship between education and employment. The new director wants to rebuild trust between SENA and the productive sector, improve the quality and reach of training programs and ensure that students are better positioned to obtain properly remunerated work.

His background is unusually broad for the leadership of a national vocational-training system. Born in Tunja, in the department of Boyacá, Torres Castro holds a degree in philosophy with an emphasis on political and economic thought, a bachelor’s degree in theology from the Pontifical Bolivarian University, a master’s degree in administration and a master’s degree in international business and strategic marketing from the University of Barcelona. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in administration at the University of Medellín.

Between 2017 and 2023, he served as rector of the Medellín campus of Santo Tomás University. He has also worked as a dean, professor, researcher, university administrator and public-sector adviser. His experience includes service as an adviser to the General Directorate of the National Center for Historical Memory and social and human-rights work in regions including Catatumbo.

He has also held senior administrative positions within Santo Tomás University and served as national director of special projects. His public recognition includes the rank of Commander of the Congress of the Republic.

The transition from Catholic higher education to a major public institution will inevitably attract attention. But the significance of the appointment lies less in the fact that Torres Castro is a religious than in the particular profile he brings to the position: an academic and administrator whose formation combines theology and philosophy with management, international business and institutional leadership.

That combination may prove important in an institution facing a challenge that is simultaneously educational, economic and social. SENA must train workers for a changing economy while remaining accessible to people who often have fewer opportunities to enter higher education. It must respond to the needs of employers without reducing education to a purely commercial function. And it must expand opportunity without allowing expansion to come at the expense of quality.

Torres Castro’s stated vision appears to seek precisely that balance. The institution, according to the plans outlined for his administration, should be understood as part of a broader relationship between the State and the productive sector, with training linked more closely to employment, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The appointment was announced alongside two other major government decisions: businessman Mauricio Tobón was named Colombia’s ambassador to Mexico, while geologist David Santiago Tamayo was designated to lead the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management from August 7.

But the choice of a Dominican friar to lead SENA is the appointment likely to generate the greatest curiosity. In a country where debates about education and public policy are often sharply ideological, Torres Castro’s arrival places a figure formed in a Catholic intellectual tradition at the center of a national project focused on skills, employment and social advancement.

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