The Institute For Tourism Studies and Shatec Institutes Macau signed the Agreement for Collaboration on 5 November. President of IFT, Dr. Fanny Vong and Chairman of Shatec Institutes Macau, Mr. Kevin Ho presided over the ceremony.

Macao tourism industry is developing rapidly in recent years. Many international hotel complexes have landed in Macao, providing various facilities from leisure entertainment to business event. To sustain the development, the industry has an increasing demand for high caliber professionals. IFT is offering a variety of courses which are tailored made to satisfy this demand. In addition to this, IFT strives to look for cooperation opportunities with international institutes and certification bodies, to provide training courses which are recognised globally and nurture professionals with international qualifications. For this, IFT is collaborating with Shatec Institutes Macau to co-organise different training programmes which can further raise the standard of our human resources.

Shatec Institutes Macau is set up as a partnership between Shatec Institutes Singapore and local investors in 2009. Shatec Institutes Singapore was set up in 1983 and specialises in hospitality trainings. Till now the Institute has already trained 25,000 professionals from 5-star hotels in over 20 countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and China. It is a first class hospitality and tourism educational organisation. As a division of the Singapore based Institute, Shatec Institutes Macau will carry on the teaching concept and approach to provide flexible and customised human capital development solutions to the local industry, to train professional with the highest global standard.

The collaboration of IFT and Shatec Institutes Macau can better enhance academic exchange. Student and staff exchange programmes are in plan and faculties from both Institutes are encouraged to do joint research and co-publish their findings. Resources can also be utilised more efficiently, for instance by sharing libraries and programme information. The two Institutes are going to co-organised various seminar, conference and short-term certificate courses, which provides the industry more training opportunities to meet the objectives in building up our local pool of talents.