The SHTM and Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, a leading manager and developer of premium resorts, hotels, spas and galleries, have signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) to work together in the areas of executive education and internship programmes.

The signing ceremony took place on 22 March at the new SHTM premises and was presided over by Mr Ho Kwon Ping, Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd, and Professor Kaye Chon, Dean and Chair Professor of the SHTM.

This strategic collaboration is in keeping with the two parties' common interests in promoting executive education for those already in the hospitality workforce, research for product and service innovation, and industry attachment for students who aspire to join the hospitality industry upon graduation.

As a result of the first MOU, the SHTM will provide Banyan Tree's associates with executive education either at the SHTM or any of the Banyan Tree properties. Given that one of the School's important roles is to feed research findings and other forms of expertise back to its principle base – the hospitality and tourism industry – it has already formed a firm foothold in establishing well-respected executive development programmes. The School strives at all times to ensure that practitioners are kept abreast of the latest findings and trends that matter.

The second MOU lays the groundwork for the SHTM and Banyan Tree to work together in the area of student internship and training, with Banyan Tree offering internship attachments each year to a number of SHTM undergraduates. The number of student interns will be determined by mutual consent each year.

Banyan Tree will also offer one-year industry attachments to Chinese mainland students who are eligible for admission to the SHTM's MSc programme on the basis that they successfully complete the attachment. Both MOUs cover a period of five years.

With Banyan Tree's unwavering support and the SHTM's teaching and research hotel, Hotel ICON, at the heart of its new approach to hospitality education, the School expects more success and greater contributions in the years ahead.