Alumni Main Headline

IFT graduates on fast track to management at luxury retailer DFS

中文摘要 / Summary in Chinese

A group of 3 IFT graduates has been given a flying start to professional life at luxury retailer DFS. The graduates were selected to join the firm’s 18-month management trainee programme in 2015, and have now progressed to working as permanent product sales managers at the company.

“Landing my first management role is an exciting and rewarding experience,” says IFT alumna Ms. Marcela Fok.

She and Ms. Kiwi Leong were the first newly-graduated IFT alumni to be accepted directly into the DFS training programme. The scheme provides opportunity for a big career jump: those successfully completing such a programme are considered by DFS for permanent manager-level positions.

Having achieved that, Ms. Fok says one of the challenges she now faces as a young professional is honing her leadership skills. She states the DFS programme was important for her personal and professional development. “I am now constantly looking for innovative ways to accomplish work more efficiently and with higher quality,” she says.

Ms. Fok states the education she received at IFT has been important in helping her advance her career. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism Retail and Marketing Management, having graduated in academic year 2014/15. She praises the “great amount of resources” made available by IFT to its students, and staff commitment to providing students with opportunity for a well-rounded education, “from theory to practice, from observation to critical thinking”.

Ms. Gigi Hoi was part of the first batch of graduates in the IFT Tourism Retail and Marketing Management Bachelor Degree Programme, completing her studies in academic year 2012/13. After gaining some retail industry experience, she applied in 2015 for the DFS programme and was accepted.

She says attending the course allowed her to strengthen her skills and enlarge her professional network. Ms. Hoi says it was an “unforgettable” experience and very enriching from a professional standpoint, with regular feedback and support from the DFS team. She says the programme helped her become more resilient in the face of challenges and made her more aware of the importance of continuing learning for career development.

Ms. Hoi says IFT provided her “a foundation” for professional success in the retail industry. “At work, I remember the many useful things regarding customer behaviour or marketing analysis that I learned during my studies,” she says. Ms. Hoi also highlights the focus at IFT on project presentation skills, which she says are particularly “important in the real business world”.

“I was lucky to study in IFT,” she adds. “It really helped me to prepare myself and be competitive.”

Ms. Juliana Ma, Learning and Development Manager for Macao at DFS, praises the quality of IFT graduates.

“The graduates are well equipped with retail and marketing professional knowledge and technical competence,” she says. Ms. Ma says this enables the Institute’s graduates to go “into action right away” once they enter the industry.

Ms. Ma also notes the “willingness” of IFT graduates to learn. “They are very passionate about retailing,” she says.

The DFS Graduate Development Programme is designed to provide young higher education graduates “an opportunity to fast-track their careers with DFS” via an 18- to 24-month training programme involving rotation between various company roles, says Ms. Ma. “We offer in-depth training and mentoring to develop them into future leaders in the retail industry.”

She says management trainees are exposed to several areas of the business during the duration of the programme and can choose to specialise in a particular field.

Ms. Ma says the company’s Graduate Development Programme looks for “individuals who are passionate about retail, are action-focused and can drive results”. DFS, she adds, “values the talent of its team” and looks forward “to having more IFT graduates” on its workforce.

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