Guam’s hospitality sector is the heartbeat of the island’s economy, but maintaining a robust workforce requires more than just waiting for talent to graduate. Enter the Hotel Associate Youth Apprenticeship Program (HAYAP), an innovative initiative by the Guam Community College (GCC) and the Guam Department of Labor (GDOL). In a meeting with GCC and the Department of Labor last week, I was amazed at how proactive our local efforts have been in supporting this industry. While starting a...

In the business world, navigating without a clear roadmap is a recipe to settle for less. Strategic planning meetings serve as an organizational compass, aligning leadership, defining long-term objectives, and mapping out the tactical steps required to achieve them. When executed correctly, they bridge the gap between high-level ambition and daily operational execution. However, the efficacy of a strategic plan relies heavily on timing, the temporal scope of its horizon, and the vigor of...

As Guam navigates an unprecedented wave of economic growth, the island faces a critical bottleneck: a pressing shortage of localized talent. This shortage is driven heavily by massive defense-related construction, advanced technology initiatives like additive manufacturing, and an expanding healthcare sector. Guam demands an agile and highly skilled labor force capable of meeting these rising demands. To address this, the Government of Guam is actively rolling out aggressive initiatives...