Design boss slams absence of architecture and building courses
Against the backdrop of the gaming boom and a strong economy, a job explosion across a range of industries in Macau has aggravated the enclave's human resources shortage in professional fields.
Amid recruiters calling for more overseas workers to fill staffing gaps, there is also the call for government action to re-examine the education system to produce locally trained architects for its growing construction projects.
The managing architect of Macau's leading design firm Steelman Architecture Asia, James Wong, said there was a glaring omission in the courses offered by tertiary institutions in the enclave. 'None of the higher education institutions [in Macau] offer any architecture or construction related courses,' Mr Wong said. 'Design related to the living environment is not on the education agenda. I think it is extremely short-sighted because the education system here needs to provide a spectrum of skills and there are a lot of jobs that no local people can fill because they do not have the skills.'
Steelman Architecture Asia, a hospitality design specialist, set up in Macau in 2003 and has grown from a handful of people to more than 30 staff. Mr Wong said staffing levels were expected to grow to about 50 by the end of next year. Some of Steelman's major works in Macau include the Four Seasons Hotel Macao, City of Dreams, Macao Studio City and Galaxy Cotai Mega Resort. The company also has projects on the mainland, Cambodia and Vietnam.
'We had the option of setting up office in Hong Kong or Macau and we chose Macau as the headquarters because it was more suitable,' Mr Wong said. 'Transportation has improved, the majority of our projects are here and I felt that Macau needed a design company of international standing.'
Mr Wong said the surge in the gaming and hospitality sector had created a demand for a new breed of employee with portable, highly adaptive and specialised skills. University degrees in architecture or design are a minimum requirement for new recruits and qualification can take up to seven years to complete. Mr Wong said employees with these skills and experience were almost impossible to find in Macau, unless companies targeted students who had left to study and wanted to return. 'My office policy is we try to give opportunities to Macau people,' Mr Wong said. 'But there are pretty limited choices and it is not easy to find the skills and experience in our industry in Macau.'