The Higher School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism (ESGHT) of the University of Algarve (UAlg) will celebrate its 35th anniversary on the 22nd of October with a ceremony that will start at 14:30 pm, in the Professor Ludgero Sequeira Auditorium, on the Penha Campus .
The opening session, which also marks 15 years of the degree in Marketing, is led by Alexandra Rodrigues Gonçalves and Ana Martins, director and deputy director of ESGHT, and the rector of UAlg Paulo Águas, followed by the testimony of Inês Santos, graduate in Marketing, and the delivery of souvenirs to Marketing students who finish their degree this academic year.
In addition to awarding scholarships to master's students and undergraduate students in Tourism, the program includes a conversation-debate with agents from the region and ESGHT partners under the theme “Algarve, Present and Future”, whose objective is to think about strategic areas in which the various entities intervene in the relationship with the School, higher education and the region.
The debate, moderated by journalist Maria Augusta Casaca (from TSF), will have as guests Helder Martins (AHETA), Hugo Vieira (vice-president of the national board of ANJE), Jorge Cabaço (Dengun), Lizabete Sequeira (Order of Certified Accountants – Faro), Isabel Delgado (Zoomarine) Marta Aragão (President of APET), Reinaldo Teixeira (Garvetur) and Vítor Neto (NERA).
For Alexandra Rodrigues Gonçalves, «ESGHT has contributed significantly to training and higher qualifications in the region in Management, Marketing, Tourism and Hospitality, but also in other more technical and professional areas, such as accounting, taxation, secretariat, systems and technologies, among other postgraduate offers, as is the case of the recent Digital Marketing».
In a note, UAlg highlights that the ESGHT teaching staff has a balance between career teachers and guest teachers with a strong connection to the business world.
In the director's opinion, «the region has a high number of young people who, if they did not have this proximity offer, would certainly not pursue higher studies, so it has been important to create new offers so that these young people have access to education in the main areas of the region , but also in the trends that the market started to request, which involve a lot of new technologies and STEAM areas – Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, but without forgetting the regional productive specialization very focused on Tourism and Hospitality».
By way of example, the University of Algarve recalls the degree in Marketing which, with just 15 years, has already been responsible for more than 300 graduates, and among the various offers there are already thousands of professionals who have contributed to the professional qualification of various sectors of the regional and national economy.
«In polytechnic education, it is the Organic Unit with the largest number of graduates over these 35 years. Every year there are close to 300 students who attend a final internship to complete their degree and from there begin their first professional experience», explains the director.
Regarding future ambitions, Alexandra Rodrigues Gonçalves highlights two new support infrastructures, which will allow the existing offer to continue to be qualified, contributing to new offers in its basic scientific areas.
«We are talking, in particular, about the kitchen and application accommodation, which brings together a partnership with other organic units for the intervention in the former “Rector's House”, on the Penha Campus, which will allow us to invest in new training offers and enable research and development in areas linked to gastronomy and hospitality, in general terms, and in relation to the Mediterranean Diet, which will certainly make an important contribution to the economic and social fabric of the region and to companies, through the possibility not only of carrying out research, but also to train agents».
The second major infrastructure that is being studied and developed is the new Portimão Campus, which, according to it, will lead to a rethinking of the internal organization, given the size and geographic distance, and the future development of other training offers in Barlavento .
Finally, Alexandra Rodrigues Gonçalves guarantees that «the ambition will also continue to deepen research and continue to contribute directly to a more innovative and entrepreneurial region».
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