A group of 111 Macau university students graduated from Sands China’s Integrated Resort Internship Programme on 9 May, with the company honouring them at a ceremony at the Venetian Macao.
Sands China has been working closely with local universities and established the Integrated Resort Internship Programme to offer students short-term work experiences at Sands China’s integrated resorts for a period of up to six months. The programme offers internship opportunities in 10 non-gaming departments, including concierge, food and beverage, corporate communications and entertainment, giving interns valuable integrated resort work experience.
“Sands China is very proud of our graduates of the Integrated Resort Internship Programme,” said Antonio Ramirez, senior vice president of human resources for Sands China Ltd. “We’re pleased to offer programmes like this to local university students, giving them the chance to develop skills and gain experience in the working world. We hope that through such opportunities, we can nurture local talent to develop into future integrated resort professionals.”
Each intern received a certificate for completing the programme, with three noteworthy graduates honoured on stage with an Impressive Performance Award after having been shortlisted by their department heads, who also attended the graduation ceremony. The three award winners also received a special souvenir as a token of recognition for their achievement.
All graduates also received handwritten cards with comments and words of encouragement from their department heads, and got the chance to seek career advice after the ceremony.
Nearly 90% of the students who graduated from the internship programme are also graduating from their universities this June. They are being offered the chance to join Sands China’s Fast Track Supervisor Programme, the company’s Career Experience Opportunities Programme (CEOP) or other full-time job opportunities with Sands China.
In recent years, Sands China has introduced a variety of integrated resort career development initiatives exclusively for local university students, including the Fast Track Supervisor Programme and the CEOP. These innovative programmes offer participants the opportunity to gain valuable hands-on work experience, paving the way for successful careers as integrated resort professionals. These and other initiatives are part of the Sands China Academy, a platform dedicated to the career development of both Sands China team members and local Macau talent, including those not directly employed by Sands China.
The Fast Track Supervisor Programme is an intensive programme dedicated to training exceptional graduates to reach supervisory-level positions within four to 12 months. Its ultimate aim is to develop locals into professionals in non-gaming areas such as hotel and housekeeping in order to meet the local market demand for such talent.
Since the launch of the programme in August 2016, nearly 40 locals have joined, working in various hotel operations departments including front office, concierge, Paiza rooms, and housekeeping. As of April 2017, seven have become supervisors – five of them within just six months’ time. As part of Tuesday’s graduation ceremony, two of these supervisors shared their experience of receiving professional training and working at Sands China properties with the graduating interns through a video presentation.
The CEOP is designed especially for local university students, and offers a wide diversity of on-the-job training and continued learning opportunities at Sands China’s integrated resorts. Participants receive comprehensive professional on-the-job training like full-time employees, but on a flex-time basis – allowing them to give adequate focus to their university studies while they practice applying what they learn in the classroom to real-world integrated resort operations.
