More companies take part in IFT Career Day

IFT President Fanny Vong

The Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) held its 2018 Career Day at the IFT Taipa Campus yesterday. In total, 39 organizations from the tourism and service industries joined and exhibited at the event, providing employment opportunities and information, as well as advising participants on the latest developments in their sectors, increasing their chances of success in job hunting.

The positions were in several industries, ranging from tourism to insurance to telecommunications. 

During the event, participating organizations exhibited around 1,000 job vacancies and offered employment opportunities to IFT graduating students. 

Last year, the 22 employers that attended offered more than 600 positions.

IFT President Fanny Vong said “each year, we will do a sort of follow-up on the graduates, [such as] what their situation is six months after having graduated from IFT.”

“We are very satisfied upon seeing the recent statistics. Approximately 85 to 90 percent of the graduates were able to find a job within six months after graduation. The remaining graduates consider furthering their education or changing to another job,” said Vong, adding that “more than 70 percent of the graduates will work for the tourism services industry.”

According to Vong, IFT graduates normally get a slightly higher salary than Macau’s average.

When addressing yesterday’s career day, Vong noted that the variety of companies participating in the event has been increasing.

“In the past, comparatively, there were more hotel and tourism related companies participating in our career day. The past two years saw an increase in the number of companies related to other types of services. […] This year, we have witnessed a few high-end retail and human resources companies.”

The employment rate of IFT graduates has been satisfactory. A graduate employment survey was conducted with the participation of 2016/17 graduates. According to the survey results, 84.2 percent of the degree program graduates were employed, while 8.5 percent of graduates pursued further studies. Of the employed graduates, 74 percent worked in the tourism and hospitality sector with a median salary of MOP14,100.

The 2015/16 IFT Degree and Diploma Program Graduate Employment Survey found that 81 percent of bachelor degree holders had a job six months after graduating from IFT, out of which more than 75 percent were employed in the tourism or hospitality sectors.

Organizations that participated in the event included Air Macau, AsiaHospitalityCareers.com, Christian Dior (Macau), DFS Cotai, EGL Tours (Macau), Evolution-HR and Four Seasons Hotel Macao.