WHOLE PERSON DEVELOPMENT | Melco YOU-niversity program nurtures local management talent

Melco Resorts & Entertainment believes innovation and success is realized through personal growth and advancement. The Melco Learning Academy, Macau’s first in-house academy, embraces this commitment to lifelong learning through Whole Person Development. Since its establishment a decade ago in 2010, the academy has offered over 5,845 courses to more than 639,600 colleague participants in Macau and Hong Kong.
In September 2015, Melco’s in-house driven Bachelor’s Degree program YOU-niversity was launched in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University. Unique in Macau, and one of just very few in Asia, the program recognizes management experience as university credits, allowing direct entry to the third year of study.
The two-year degree program is taught on-premise at Melco properties, and enrolled colleagues’ relevant work departments are encouraged to provide flexible duty rosters to support studying whilst working – enabling colleagues to further develop their careers through sustained learning. The first batch of 15 Melco employees graduated from the program in 2018.
Recently, a second batch of 14 colleagues from across Melco’s various departments, including Casino Marketing, F&B, Entertainment, Finance, Information Technology, Table Games, Hotel, Learning Academy and Security completed the program and successfully graduated with Bachelor of Arts in International Business Practice. The customized courses studied include International Marketing, Strategic Management in a Global Context, Service Management, Introduction to Accounting, International Business and Casino Management.

Discussing personal and professional achievements attained from the program, recent graduate Ronald, Senior Operations Manager of Security, said, “This has been a valuable opportunity to better myself in terms of education and personal cultivation, developing my eagerness to learn as well as the ability to think independently. Applying the technical and interpersonal skills taught through the course benefits my daily work life – helping to strengthen my social network, allowing me to lead my team in a more skillful way whilst enabling me to be more effective in assisting my superiors.”
Fellow graduate Charles, Manager of Security Control Room, said, “My parents had always held high hopes for my education, sending me to the United States at 15 in preparation for attending university there. Unfortunately, our family business closed down after a few years and my parents could no longer afford to support my studying abroad, and I dropped out of college to begin full time work.
“Shortly after Christmas 2017, my mother was admitted to hospital due to chest pain. Here, she mentioned that her greatest regret was her inability to support me in completing my degree. I comforted her by telling her about the company-sponsored Melco YOU-niversity program, and promised that I would fight my way through to enrol and graduate from it.
“She passed away that same night due to heart failure, and I swore to keep my final promise to her by completing my college degree. With my business unit leader’s endorsement and nomination I was selected to become one of the employees to attend the YOU-niversity program in mid-2018.
“It was hard to manage life while working full time and study for a university degree, especially when my wife and I were expecting our firstborn at the beginning of 2019. I wanted to set an example for my son by completing my bachelor degree in my 40s, so that he would understand that learning is a lifelong journey, which is especially true in today’s rapidly changing world.”
Charles added, “My heartfelt thanks go to Melco for making YOU-niversity possible. I also thank colleagues from Learning Academy who run this program and all my family, friends, colleagues, instructors, tutors and classmates for helping me in the past two years. My dream of obtaining a university degree finally comes true.”