Advancing Hospitality Skills and Careers Is a Core Focus of Sands’ Priority on Workforce Development
Over the past year, Sands has made significant contributions to increasing skills and promoting careers in a variety of disciplines related to travel and tourism by supporting developmental opportunities that can help people working in its local communities’ hospitality industry create long-term career paths and obtain higher-paying jobs.
Ensuring a pipeline of hospitality industry talent through skills development and career advancement is a core focus under the company’s priority on workforce development, along with advancing opportunities for Team Members and the local labor pool as a whole. Sands aims to invest $200 million in workforce development programs by 2025, as one of its three primary corporate responsibility ambitions.
Initiatives to advancing hospitality industry workers span a variety of programs, based on each region’s landscape and needs.
Singapore
In late 2023, Sands and Marina Bay Sands awarded funding to the first 49 recipients in the $1 million Sands Hospitality Scholarship Program, established to help cultivate a pipeline of talent and capitalize on the tremendous tourism growth projected in Singapore over the coming years. Aimed at encouraging the region’s brightest talent to consider hospitality careers, the program will ultimately support more than 100 students in pursuing hospitality or tourism-related courses at six institutes of higher learning.
Since 2018, Marina Bay Sands has worked closely with the Singapore Institute of Technology to nurture promising talents who are keen to develop their careers in the hospitality industry. The integrated resort has donated more than $447,000 toward the Marina Bay Sands Bursary, which has provided financial assistance for 120 undergraduates pursuing bachelor of hospitality business degrees to help them hone their interest and skills toward a hospitality profession.
Marina Bay Sands also offers ongoing programs to host hospitality students onsite, provide trainings and offer mentoring. One initiative is the In Conversation With series, which hosts leaders in a variety of fields related to hospitality and tourism for learning sessions with students and aspiring professionals. Guest speakers have included acclaimed director Steven Caple Jr. and producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, known for their work on the blockbuster film “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud, and environmental and sustainability experts from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.
Last year, Sands China introduced the Sands Hospitality Academy to drive skills in the local hospitality industry. The academy formally launched in November 2023, with the purpose of advancing hospitality skills and vocational knowledge among Team Members, cultivating talent among youth looking to join the industry, and setting the highest international standards for the region’s hospitality industry by extending Sands China’s vast hospitality experience to the Greater Bay Area. The academy offers property tours, career-sharing sessions, masterclasses and lectures by company senior executives and industry experts.
Sands China also launched the Sands MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) Academy in March 2023 to incubate much-needed talent for large-scale meetings and conferences in Macao. The academy provides internships, educational exchanges and training courses with Sands China’s senior management team serving as guest lecturers, as well as numerous tours of Sands China’s properties for high school and university students and faculty members, focusing particularly on people studying in the MICE field.
In addition, Sands China collaborates with local educational institutions to develop hospitality talent. Programs have included collaboration with The Macao Institute for Tourism on the 8th Tourism Education Summit, a full-day event that enabled students to explore tourism and hospitality trends in the Greater Bay Area.
For people interested in pursuing careers on the entertainment side of the industry, Sands China has established the three-year Stage Technology and Event Production Course in collaboration with the Sino-Portuguese Vocational and Technical School. This unique program provides secondary school students with an unparalleled opportunity to learn about entertainment-related jobs, develop specific skill sets and create entertainment career pathways.
Other educational collaborations focus on cultivating talent in professional services areas related to the hospitality industry. These programs include the Art Talent Showcase, a partnership with Macao Polytechnic University that enables participants to work on the company’s internal promotional and graphic design projects, and programs with the Macau Institute of Management and Wuyi University that have enabled facilities management students to gain hands-on experience through resort visits and meetings with executives.
Finally, other student initiatives include the award-winning City of Gourmet – Youth Development and Integration Program, which features industry experts and Sands China’s world-class chocolate and tea masters as tutors to inspire and equip trainees with valuable skills. The Ready, Get Set, Go! internship program and Go! Explore the Infinity of Sands China provide secondary and tertiary students in Macao with valuable opportunities to discover career paths in the hospitality and tourism industry.
United States
At the corporate level, Sands is focused on ensuring a diverse workforce and cultivating a pipeline of skilled talent in the hospitality industry. For example, the Sands Hospitality Immersion Program, held in conjunction with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, provides students from historically Black colleges and universities with an intensive Las Vegas experience designed to encourage interest in travel, tourism and leisure by exposing them to the inner workings of the Las Vegas hospitality industry. The Sands Hospitality Immersion Program welcomed 12 students in the summer of 2023 for a week of seminars, tours, events and unique experiences curated by the Sands Center for Professional Development, at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
In Greater New York, where Sands hopes to build its next world-class integrated resort, the company has already begun steps to train a pipeline of hospitality talent by establishing collaborative relationships with local educational institutions. Sands, Long Island University (LIU) and Nassau Community College (NCC) have agreed in principle if the company is successful in obtaining a Downstate New York gaming license to create a comprehensive hospitality program for Long Island college students to prepare for jobs and create career paths in tourism-related disciplines.
The partnership will establish a bridge between LIU and NCC, empowering NCC graduates to advance their two-year associate’s degrees to four-year bachelor’s degrees at LIU’s nearby campus. Additionally, NCC will partner with Sands to develop a workforce development training hub with planned programs in hotel and casino management, security and surveillance, meetings and banquets, entertainment, and food and beverage services. Learning models will include internships and other experiential components for NCC students.
“Building skillsets and exposing a greater number of students and young professionals to the vast array of career opportunities the hospitality industry offers is one of our top priorities,” said Ron Reese, senior vice president of global communications and corporate affairs, who spearheads corporate responsibility initiatives at Sands. “We are investing not only in the future talent that will sustain our company, but in the major economic impact that a thriving hospitality industry brings to our local communities.”
To learn more about Sands’ workforce development initiatives, read the 2022 ESG Report here: https://www.sands.com/2022-environmental-social-and-governance-report/
