Institute News Main Headline

About half of all IFTM graduates find their way into management, survey finds

中文摘要 / Summary in Chinese

Some 44 percent of IFTM graduates were employed in managerial roles last year, according to the results of the Institute’s latest Employer Satisfaction Survey. The finding was one of the significant takeaways from the survey of employer opinions about the work performance of IFTM higher diploma and bachelor degree graduates. It covered graduates that completed their studies at the Institute between 1997 and 2018.

The Employer Satisfaction Survey is being used by IFTM’s management as a tool to better understand the needs of the tourism and hospitality industries, and as a device to help evaluate the quality of education at the Institute.

The survey was undertaken over three months towards the end of last year. More than 350 employers were contacted, and the survey took the responses from 184 employers with 1,962 IFTM graduates on their staff. The majority of those alumni – about 79 percent – were employed in the tourism and hospitality industries.

Graduates included by the survey earned a median salary of MOP24,600 a month, which is significantly higher than the median monthly earnings of a Macao resident of MOP20,000, according to the Employment Survey published last December by the Macao SAR Statistics and Census Service.

Additionally, about 99 percent of employers would consider employing more IFTM graduates in the future, the survey found.

The survey looked into the performance of graduates by asking their employers to rate their work on 16 different characteristics, which included perceptions of employee productivity, the quality of work, mastery of analysis and problem-solving skills, and teamwork.

Employers were most satisfied with the discipline and ethical behaviour displayed by IFTM alumni. Employers also appreciated IFTM alumni for their ability to work in teams and were pleased with their dedication and levels of responsibility.

The data from this section of the survey was then used to compile a benchmark number that described employer satisfaction with their IFTM graduates. Overall, IFTM graduates were rated 7.9 out of a possible 10 by their employers, where 1 was “very dissatisfied” and a score was 10 was “very satisfied”.

The top 3 areas of improvement that employer respondents wanted to see from their IFTM alumni were: expand the range of knowledge, broaden international horizon, and enhance creativity and innovation.

President’s Corner

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