Sands China Academy commits to nurturing local talent

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Thursday, April 17, 2025

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Sands China held a ceremony on March 11 to showcase the company’s and its long-term partners’ unwavering commitment to talent development in Macao.

Talent is one of the cornerstones of society’s steady development, and Sands China has taken that principle to heart since its founding. On March 11, the company held the Sands China Academy Achievements and Roadmap Presentation at The Londoner Macao to showcase Sands China’s outstanding successes in nurturing young talent over the years. The presentation featured trainee testimonials, videos, and recognition of academy graduates with certificates of completion and awards for exceptional performance. The event also marked the launch of the Sands China Integrated Resort Leader Development Programme, a new initiative strengthening the development of management talent in the integrated tourism and leisure industry and enhancing talent reserves.

A group of high school students visit The Parisian Theatre as participants in the first edition of the Sands Entertainment Academy’s “Stage Technology and Event Production Course.”

With its roots in Macao for over 20 years, Sands China has over 27,000 team members, making it the largest integrated tourism and leisure enterprise and the largest private employer in Macao. Established in 2015, the Sands China Academy is dedicated to providing team members with diversified training programmes by actively collaborating with the Macao SAR government, local and international higher education institutions, and educational organisations, making its talent development efforts more systematic and standardised. The company has launched numerous training initiatives, including elite programmes, seminars, exchanges, symposiums, expeditions, specialised workshops and internships. One example is its youth development programmes, which offer paid training lasting from several months to several years. To date, over 3,300 young people have successfully completed these programmes.

The Sands Retail Academy arranges a visit to Shoppes at Venetian for students to give them an in-depth understanding of the retail industry.

An upgrade to eight sub-academies

In order to drive the diversified development of Macao’s tourism industry, the Sands China Academy has expanded to eight sub-academies. Their training initiatives accommodate new societal trends and developments, broadening their scope to cultivate diverse professionals for enterprises, society and the Greater Bay Area. Sands China provided team members with more than 2.22 million hours of on-the-job training in 2024. On average, each Sands China team member received 81.6 hours of training, higher than the 21-hour benchmark reported by the Association for Talent Development (ATD).

Committed to nurturing future leaders

The March 11 event inaugurated the Sands China Integrated Resort Leader Development Programme, aimed at nurturing the management and leadership skills of future leaders for local integrated resorts, as well as enhancing the forward-thinking and strategic decision-making skills of management – enabling them to stay abreast of global industry trends and empowering them to become leaders in the integrated tourism and leisure industry. The leadership programme is set to collaborate with world-renowned Cornell University and with talent assessment and human resources strategy firm SHL to enhance participants’ management capabilities through a professional curriculum. The programme will scientifically analyse their individual traits, thereby providing personalised direction for the development of their specific management skills. The participants will also have the opportunity to visit world-renowned enterprises to have exchanges and explore their management culture and operations.

The Sands Facilities Academy offers comprehensive training courses, covering various technical skills such as electrical work, air conditioning, and interior painting, and supports participants in obtaining professional certifications.

Grant Chum, chief executive officer and executive director of Sands China Ltd., said:

Talent is the foundation of national and corporate development. As Macao’s largest private employer, Sands China has over 27,000 outstanding team members. We deeply understand that the remarkable achievements of the past two decades would not have been possible without the professionalism and dedication of each team member. Upholding our core value of putting people at the heart of our business, we actively support the Macao SAR government’s goal of “Developing Macao with Talent.” Through a systematic talent development framework, we continuously strengthen our professional team, fuelling the company’s high-quality growth and contributing to Macao’s economic diversification.

Sands China and the Macao University of Tourism signed a memorandum of understanding in March 2023, aimed at strengthening exchanges between academia and the industry to nurture Macao’s tourism talent.

Since talent development is one of our top priorities, the Sands China Academy has pioneered multiple talent development programmes, establishing professional training platforms across sectors such as MICE, procurement, retail, and hotel management. In addition, our elite development programmes attract local youth to join these industries, cultivating high-quality talent to support the industries’ advancement in Macao. Looking ahead, we will continue to collaborate closely with all sectors of society to enhance Macao’s competitiveness as a world centre of tourism and leisure, ensuring this “pearl in the palm” of the nation shines even brighter.

Sharing by programme participants

Tiffany Ngai enrolled in The All-Round Convention and Exhibition Management Programme under the Sands MICE Academy, through the Labour Affairs Bureau. She gained extensive professional knowledge in the MICE industry, benefited from opportunities to earn internationally recognised certifications, and developed cross-departmental collaboration and communication skills – all of which have been invaluable for her career development.

Alice Wu has completed the Integrated Resort Business Analyst Development Programme under the Sands IR Management Academy, and now serves as a senior analyst in Sands China’s market development department. She noted that the programme enhanced her ability to think holistically, analyse data from multiple perspectives, and develop integrated solutions. It also deepened her understanding of how integrated resorts maintain competitive advantages across diverse business areas in a complex commercial environment.