Gaming and hotel employees’ skills competition to be held next week

The first Macau Integrated Tourism and Leisure Enterprise Vocational Skills Competition will kick off next Tuesday, the Macao Federation of Trade Unions announced this week.

The event consists of three separate contests: one for gaming entertainment vocational skills, another for hotel integrated service vocational skills, and the third for world gastronomy city vocational skills .

The competitions are supported by the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), by the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) and by the Macao Polytechnic Institute.

The schools will provide spaces and facilities for the competitions, with the schools also sending their representatives to serve as jury members.

The six gaming operators will also be sending a team to each competition.

The competition will kick off with the gaming vocational skills category on January 15 at the workers’ stadium. Each team will consist of two members. The participants will be requested to calculate cards, among other gaming table skills.   

On January 17, at IFT, the hotel service skills competition will be carried out. Each team will consist of three members, who will be given tasks related to handling hotel room arrangements.

The cooking skills competition will be held on January 18 at MUST’s teaching kitchen. Each team will consist of five members. For this competition, teams will be requested to cook an appetizer, a main course and a dessert.

In the first two categories, the organizer will set the third runner-up.

For the cooking skill competition, the third runner-up, best appetizer, best main course,the best dessert and the best cooking counter will be awarded.

The award ceremony will be conducted at the Fisherman’s Wharf on January 23.

At the sidelines of the press conference, president of the Macau Federation of Trade Unions, Chan Kam Meng, hoped that the competition can help Macau’s tourism and leisure companies to maintain their world-class services, and that the competition can encourage the gaming employees’ vocational quality.

“Our hotels are world first-class. Macau is the center of the world’s gaming industry. Our service level has been continuously improving, which let tourists enjoy Macau’s service,” said Chan.

“Actually, we are considering [inviting international teams] to participate in the competition. This is the first edition, so we are promoting locals to improve their skills. In the future, for the second or third editions, we will consider ways to invite high-level tourism and leisure teams to compete in Macau in order to enhance our communication and [help] our services improve,” said Chan.