Sands Academy Celebrates ESL Graduation

At the end of May, Sands Academy held their annual English as a Second Language (ESL) graduation for Team Members at The Venetian and The Palazzo.  Courses were conducted by Language Xpress, a company specializing in classes tailored to a specific company and industry.  Las Vegas Sands, through Sands Academy, continues to provide Team Members with an outstanding working environment, extensive training and opportunities to advance within the company.

“We started offering ESL with Language Xpress last year,” Sandra DiProspero, Talent and Organizational Development Coordinator, said.  “We had a pilot group with Housekeeping, which was very successful and after that we decided to launch two different levels in March of this year and open it to all Team Members on property.”

The ESL classes provide Team Members the tools to learn English and also master objectives that are required for promotion opportunities with the company.  This will be the first year that there will be two graduations. The second graduation will take place in October.  In May, there was a total of 16 Team Members graduating, five from Level 2 and 11 from Level 3.

“A lot of Team Members join these classes because they are looking for career advancement and they commit to attend,” DiProspero said.  “Besides the benefit of having free classes on site, they get exposure to their leadership team during the graduation ceremony and they also create a bond and friendship with their peers.  They work together and they encourage each other during the classes.”

With a constant need to have a clear understanding of instructions and responsibilities in order to perform job duties, follow procedures and the ability to communicate with guests, the classes not only focus on the ability to read, write and think conceptually, but it also builds confidence to communicate with peers, leadership and guests.

 “I went to law school in my native country and when I moved here in 2012, I started working as a housekeeper at The Venetian,” Juliet Caravello said.  “I wanted to take the steps to become a housekeeping manager.  These courses help me achieve that goal.  With these tools, we are able to reach our dreams.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn and I hope there are more opportunities like this to better ourselves.”

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