Sands China’s team members  appreciate the learning opportunities 

Sands China’s team members express gratitude for the learning opportunities offered by the company as the integrated resort operator continues to provide training and educational programmes for its team members and business partners.

Earlier this month, the integrated resort operator held the Sands China Academy’s Diversified Local Talent Graduation Ceremony at Sands Cotai Central to celebrate the achievements of local team members nurtured through its various human resource development programmes.

Three key areas of focus are horizontal and vertical management talent development, professionalism training, and development of industry professionals outside of Sands China.

For Sands China, it adheres to the government’s call for boosting the development of the Greater Bay Area, thus increasing the knowledge of its team members – from its management level employees and across the board.

The company continues to go the extra mile to nurture and develop the local workforce by giving its employees opportunities to learn additional skills and techniques.

For Connie Chio, assistant vice president of Paiza Operations, professionalism training has resulted in an in-depth understanding of China’s economic development.

Chio and her team members undertook the company’s Professionalism Training programme, which was launched in 2016 and was the first programme in the SAR to be co-organised with the Labour Affairs Bureau and the Macao Federation of Trade Unions.

Connie Chio

The assistant vice president remarked that the programme also includes visits to areas in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area such as Shunde, a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy; the headquarters of internet giant Tencent Holdings Limited in Shenzhen; and the Qianhai Free Trade Zone, each of which has different histories and characteristics that help her understand the country’s culture further.

“As a Chinese citizen, I feel proud of my country. Through the field trips, we feel fortunate that every single place that we visited allowed us to understand the region’s economic development, history and culture,” said Chio.

As food culture and innovative technology are closely related to her work, she and her team considered how they could improve themselves. “Definitely, this knowledge can broaden my horizons,” she added.

As part of the company’s Paiza management team, Chio said that the programme has become instrumental in understanding the company’s key market.

“Personally, I think we cannot fully develop unless we understand what is going on in our region. Only after that can we grasp the opportunities to better develop our careers and personal lives,” she added.  

Karen Chu (left) and Bibiana Lee

The programme also includes seminars on the fundamentals of protocol, which strengthen team members’ knowledge of protocol in Chinese-foreign affairs, Macau affairs and external affairs, allowing them to enhance their level of professionalism and familiarize themselves with how to receive delegations and guests.

The Professionalism Training programme has trained over 5,100 team members from 19 departments. 

Meanwhile, the company continues to offer an abundance of horizontal and vertical career mobility options to its team members through a variety of trailblazing talent development initiatives.

For Lam Mou Wai, who moved from a dealer role to the facilities department through the My Way programme, he noted that the transfer was an opportunity for him to acquire a different set of skills, despite the challenges of learning work of a different nature.

“I’m personally very active and would like to participate in more programmes. The most challenging part is the different training sessions with the Labour Affairs Bureau in regards to work safety,” said Lam.
“I’m happy to have overcome the challenges and I’m really grateful to the company for offering this opportunity. Now I have two skill sets and I feel really satisfied. While there are so many upcoming projects in Macau, I believe the transfer has prepared me for more opportunities in the facilities department.”

Another Sands China team member echoed the same sentiments, noting that such opportunities offered by the company allow them to explore different non-gaming departments in the company. 

The first large-scale horizontal development programme in Macau, My Way was launched in 2016, with more than 2,200 team members having joined the programme to date. 

Jacky Wu, who used to be in the table games department, now works in the housekeeping department after joining the Manager Development Programme for Integrated Resorts, which is co-organised with Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT).

“I’m very proud to be one of the participants in the Manager Development Programme. I’ve learned a lot in hotel operations, as I used to be in a different working environment. I feel happy to experience all the on-the-job training at the company and classroom learning at IFT. As Macau has a lack of local talent for management-level positions, and me being a manager now, I am convinced that this opportunity will lift my career to the next level,” he said.

Lam Mou Wai (left) and Jacky Wu

Diversified management development programmes have helped over 1,600 team members to advance their careers since 2016, by completing more than 30 programmes.

Meanwhile, the integrated resort operator has also extended its learning programmes to its business partners – whom it views as its strategic partners.

Since the company also greatly values its retail partners and small and medium enterprises, it came up with the Sands Retail Academy and the Sands Procurement Academy – both are the first training programmes of their kind in Macau for retail professionals and local SMEs.

“I’d like to thank Sands China for offering this training course not only to its employees, but also to their business partners,” said  Bibiana Lee, operation manager of Free Duty.

For Lee, the training has allowed her to enhance her managerial competence and customer service skills. 

“I’ve learned more about communication skills and have enhanced my problem solving skills and decision making, which are all very helpful in my daily work,” said Lee.

“The celebrity mentor work-
shop was really helpful, because it brought forth some inspiring real-life solutions to the problems,” she added. 

The workshops allow retail employees to learn from experts in their respective fields, better equipping retailers to provide the best experience for shoppers. 

Launched in October 2018, the Celebrity Mentor Workshop Series is co-organised by Macao Government Tourism Office and the Sands Retail Academy, and aims to continually advance the service quality of the retail industry in Macau.

The Sands Retail Academy has provided over 37,000 training hours for more than 9,000 participants to date. 

Meanwhile, the company’s SME partner Paris Store has also attended the Sands Procurement Academy’s training in a bid to gain understanding on how to improve its customer service in providing products to large-scale clients. 

“The reason why we joined the programme was not only for our business to grow. Since the course is so practical, I could learn and become aware of what we lack,” said Karen Chu, owner of Paris Store.

“We’ve learned how to cooperate with large international companies, therefore enhancing my confidence for the store’s future and to be able to access international opportunities,” she added. 

Sands China considers these initiatives as an essential part of the company’s commitment and determination to nurture local talent and help foster professional talent in the wider Macau community.

(Continued from yesterday)