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IFTM’s effort to promote entrepreneurship secures the 4th Gold Award from PATA

中文摘要 / Summary in Chinese

IFTM has been honoured with a prestigious PATA Gold Award for the fourth time and this is the second time in the category Human Capital Development Initiative, announced on 7 October, 2022. The award from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is for the Institute’s decade-long effort in promoting and nurturing entrepreneurship in the field of tourism and hospitality.

The latest accolade acknowledges IFTM’s leading role in stimulating enthusiasm for entrepreneurship. Such work by the Institute complements the Macao SAR Government’s efforts regarding promotion of business-formation skills among the city’s young people and supports Macao’s goal of achieving economic diversification. Thereby, to provide assistance in enhancing the value, quality and sustainable growth of travel and tourism of Macao; and further to, from and within the Asia Pacific region.

IFTM’s approach to spur entrepreneurial thinking in Macao is multi-pronged. The introduction of entrepreneurship course, launched in 2014, is now available to all IFTM bachelor’s degree students. The course provides undergraduates with an enterprising outlook that they can utilise to generate career opportunities. Besides, IFTM provides support and business opportunities for students to carry out industrial projects leading to start-up inspiration, offering students hands-on experiences during practical projects  and running marketing campaigns for local entrepreneurs and associations.

The Institute also stimulates skill development and motivation via an entrepreneurship competition called “Idea-cation”. IFTM similarly supports interested students, alumni, and those starting the journey to becoming an entrepreneur, via its “Ideation Lab” business idea incubator, launched in January. In addition, the Institute has an iRetail Lab that, among other things, provides a physical and online retail platform for entrepreneurs to showcase and sell their products.

The latest PATA Gold Awards presentation was held online. It acknowledged 25 organisations in the Asia-Pacific region that have made an outstanding contribution to tourism marketing, sustainability, and human capital development. A total of four entities in Macao were awarded for their respective achievements in various areas of the tourism and hospitality industry. IFTM was the only local higher education institution honoured. ‘Higher education institutions are important human capital development outlets that impact regional development. In a nutshell, human capital is an important factor that triggers and supports entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurship provides important contributions to stimulate economic and regional development, job creation, innovation and the development of the tourism industry.’ showed in the PATA Gold Awards presentation.

The Institute was presented a PATA Gold Award in the Education and Training category for the high quality of its educational programmes in 1997. The second PATA Gold Award in that same category came in 2002 and recognised the Institute’s role in developing the Macao Occupational Skills Recognition System (MORS), a training and certification scheme launched with initial support from experts from the European Union, that applies to various job categories in tourism and hospitality. In 2020, IFTM received its third Gold Award from PATA, the first time in the category of Human Capital Development Initiative, in acknowledgement of the value of the Institute’s annual Tourism Education Student Summit, showcasing the best student research.

IFTM believes that all honourable recognitions and efforts made during these years are in line with the strategic direction set by the government which aims to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation, diversification of the economy, regional development and job generation. We look forward to the normalisation of safe travel, meanwhile working together with the industry to take “tourism +” development to a brand new level.

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