Sands China announced yesterday that it has launched a leadership training programme for which 25 of its management staff will study at a local and two overseas universities, with the aim of broadening their “international horizons” and developing their career prospects.
The US gaming company yesterday held a ceremony to kick off the “Sands China International Strategic Leadership Programme for Integrated Resorts” at Sands Cotai Central.
According to a statement from the company yesterday, the programme is jointly run by the local University of Saint Joseph (USJ), as well as the Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, and Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, New York.
Aimed at developing the careers of local managerial-level staff in integrated resort management, the statement said that the first-of-its-kind programme will send the 25 employees to the three universities where they will receive leadership development training over the course of five months.
Each of the 25 staff members will attend courses at each of the three universities.
The statement said that the customised programme includes a business challenge – a practical component of the coursework for which the participants will be requested to analyse a specific, “real world” business challenge and develop a set of recommendations to deal with it, culminating with a presentation of their ideas to Sands China’s senior executives.
Addressing yesterday’s ceremony, Sands China President Wilfred Wong Ying-wai said that professionals were one of Macau’s most important resources as the city does not have any natural resources.
Wong said that his company’s efforts in developing local professionals’ careers aimed to contribute to the city’s non-gaming economic diversification and its development into a world tourism and leisure centre.
Wong said the programme would enhance the participants’ ability to “harness” the ever more complex international landscape, the rapid development of technologies, as well as customers’ rising expectations of services.
Sands China President Wilfred Wong Ying-wai delivers a speech during yesterday’s ceremony to kick off the company’s “Sands China International Strategic Leadership Programme for Integrated Resorts” at Sands Cotai Central. Photo: Tony Wong
