Singapore’s oldest hospitality and tourism school is opening a campus in Macau, reports The Straits Times.
The 10 million patacas (USD1.25 million) facility, due to open in March, will be the first permanent school abroad for Shatec Institutes, the award-winning education arm of the Singapore Hotel Association. It will focus on upgrading the skills of existing tourism industry employees.
The courses will be aimed at Macau residents, and at Singapore residents seeking to improve their skills and knowledge prior to the opening later this year and early next year of integrated gaming resorts in Singapore.
Although the Macau government has well respected facilities for training its own school and college leavers starting in the tourism sector, Shatec has seen a gap in the Macau market for in-job training. Some sectors of the Macau tourism and leisure industries are reportedly suffering from a dearth of skilled staff after mass lay offs of experienced foreign workers. It follows the slow down of the local economy in the wake of the global credit crisis.
“We are very excited by this venture. Macau and Mainland China present tremendous business growth opportunities for us to build our core business and brand, and we intend to replicate our success in these markets,” said Dr Steven Chua, president and chief executive of Shatec Institutes in a prepared media statement.
“Our presence in Macau puts us in a position to gain first-hand insight into the integrated resort sector and transfer the management know-how of such businesses back to Singapore,” added Dr Chua in comments reported by The Straits Times.
Dr Chua is a former student of Shatec and also spent a year as chief operating officer of a Macau casino, according to the newspaper.
A Macau-based company called Valeo Strategic Investments is providing finance for the project.
Valeo Strategic chief executive officer Joseph Lo says he is confident there is demand for specialised training despite the recession.
“We have many beautiful buildings [in Macau] but the customer experience is not commensurate with the product offering,” Mr Ho told the newspaper.
