**Abstract**

The teaching-learning processes in higher education require innovative tools that allow competency-based training. However, knowledge is measured numerically, ignoring disciplinary performance. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are methodologies that provide spaces for learning practical with the use of technology and tools in the formation of competencies because the student to assume roles in decision making in simulated companies. This research is quantitative and correlational and presents the perception of 290 university students on the development of managerial competencies—individual and group—with the use of simulators. Individually, 55.9% indicate scenario planning, and in the group 47.9% are oriented toward the search for efficiency in the organizational environment. The ANOVA technique showed differences according to gender, where women create personal relationships with the members of their teams to make business decisions (*p* < 0.000), and men create competitive teams to obtain results (*p* < 0.000). The importance of the use of simulators for the development of managerial competencies is highlighted, and the need to adapt spaces that facilitate the formation of capacities and skills to use these tools efficiently is indicated so that Higher Education Institutions use innovative strategies to improve the competencies of their university students through STEM methodologies.

**Keywords:** management simulators, managerial competencies, university students, Higher Education Institutions, education innovation
